Tips for Left-Handed People

About fifteen percent of the population is left-handed. Although left-handed children tend to have more trouble with manual tasks than those who are right-handed, studies suggest that left-handed people are often unusually creative, inventive, and athletic.

Left-handedness first becomes noticeable between 3 and 6 years of age. If your child is left-handed, don't try to change their dominant hand. Trying to change the dominant hand may cause the child to become frustrated and anxious.

Writing

Learning to write can be more difficult for left-handed children because the left hand, as it moves across the page, covers the words that were just written. Provide a beginning writer a pen or pencil that will not smear and encourage him or her to hold it far enough from the point so that he or she can see what he or she has written. Let the child decide for himself between the hooked position --- with the hand curved above the written line --- and the standard position --- the hand below the line.

At the table, at study, and at play

At the dining table, some left-handers prefer to sit at a corner of the table and to the left of a right-hander so that their elbows won't collide, while others have no preference. It is significant for left-handers to sit at left-handed desks. Otherwise, their writing angle will be extremely awkward and uncomfortable, putting them at a disadvantage.

Lefties seem to have more of an edge in many sports. In tennis, and other games played with a racket, they have an advantage over right-handers because their opponents are accustomed to the spin, angle of return, and weakness of right-handed players. In baseball, left-handed batters stand on the right side of home plate, several steps closer to first base than a right handed batter.

Tools and equipment

Equipment can pose a problem for left-handers in sports and elsewhere, though not nearly as much as it once was. Left-handed golf clubs and baseball mitts are widely available. Also, many tools and appliances come in left-handed models, like scissors, or can easily be adapted for left-handers (steam iron cords can usually be shifted to the left side.)