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Most children have a preference for using one hand or the other by the age of about 18 months, and are definitely right or left-handed by about the age of three.
Eleven percent of the population is born left-handed, and if they seem different, it’s because they are! Learn six tips for raising a left-handed child.
Infants develop unilateral manipulation skills—the ability to use one hand—at 7 to 9 months of age, but it is not until 10 to 11 months that they develop a true consistent hand preference. The majority of the time, hand dominance in children children begin to stabilize around 18 months to 2 years of age.
Like many complex traits, handedness does not have a simple pattern of inheritance. Children of left-handed parents are more likely to be left-handed than are children of right-handed parents.
Most babies begin to show a preference for using either their left or right hand before this age. Because cerebral palsy can cause weakness or abnormal muscle tone on one side of the body, failure to show hand preference may be a symptom of cerebral palsy.
Left-handed children are generally right-brain dominant, meaning they are often more creative, emotional and think holistically (as opposed to logically and in great detail).
Some studies found the two groups’ handedness preferences were similar, other studies, on the contrary, say left-handers are strongest at math and right-handers are the weakest.
Supposedly, late 19th-century ballparks were laid out so that the pitcher looked in a westerly direction when facing the batter. The throwing arm of a left-handed pitcher would then be to the south-hence the name southpaw.
Left-handers are more likely to have speech problems and learning disabilities, and they tend to fall in the lowest percentage of scores on math and reading test more often than righties.
Teaching left handed people to write the same way as right handed people can make handwriting slow, uncomfortable and messy. This can be a hindrance throughout adult life if not taught correctly as a child.
The authors found that the male to female odds ratio was 1.23. This indicates that if females had a chance of being left-handed of exactly 10 percent, males would have a 12 percent chance (the exact percentages vary a bit depending on geographical region).
They reported that very strong left-handers were 11 times more likely to have dyslexia than very strong right-handers.
The idea that left-handed people are more intelligent than right-handers is a myth. … Another recent study based on data from tens of thousands of people actually found that left-handedness was more common among people with very low IQ than among people with typical IQ.
Not surprisingly, southpaws will generally prefer to kick a ball with their left leg, according to Made for Mums, and they’ll have better balance on their left when standing on one leg, too. Just keep in mind that this isn’t a definitive sign in the early years, as kids want to experiment with both sides.
Rare Green Eyes
Lots of genetic traits are rare. For example, left-handedness occurs in just 10% of the world’s population, only 11% have naturally curly hair, and a mere 4% have blonde hair. … Most common in Western, Northern, and Central Europe, green eyes often point to German or Celtic ancestry.
A series of new studies show that left-handed people are more likely to suffer from learning disabilities, stuttering, migraine headaches and, according to the latest findings, autoimmune diseases, like ulcerative colitis, myasthenia gravis and celiac disease, in which the body attacks its own tissues.
Like handedness, right eye dominance is more common than left. Roughly 10% of the world’s population is left-handed, while about 1/3 is left eye dominant.
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