Tips for parents of left-handed children
Consultation for parents on the topic: “If your child is left-handed.”
Left-handers are considered special people. But if a child is found to be left-handed, does this mean his advantage or disadvantage? The first thing a psychologist hears from a parent who is informed that his child is left-handed is: “What are you talking about! He's normal to me! ” because misconceptions about left-handedness are still widespread. There are often statements in the media that left-handers are either sick or brilliant and in any case problems cannot be avoided with them. The problem is that there is some truth in both cases. Psychologists' studies confirm that among mentally ill people there are more left-handers. But the list of outstanding people is long: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Beethoven, Napoleon , There are many theories about the appearance of left-handed children: Jackson S.’s theory of habit, N. Geschwind’s theory of intrauterine and birth injuries, the theory of genetic inheritance, etc. The answers given by modern researchers refute outdated ideas on this matter. Today, psychologists are of the opinion that the basis of left-handedness is the speed of brain maturation: the faster this process, the greater the likelihood of right-handedness, the slower, the greater the likelihood of left-handedness. Handedness
- the predominance of one hand over the other - is expressed in which hand the child works, plays, eats and performs any actions better, better, more accurately and faster.
And given the uneven development of a child throughout his life, it is necessary to know that at different stages he can use either his right or his left hand as the dominant one. Some signs of handedness can be detected at an early age, for example, by the strength with which the child clenches the fist of his dominant hand; by the duration of holding the rattle in the dominant hand. From 16-20 weeks to 2 years, wave-like changes in handedness occur. From 2 to 4 years, the hands are almost equal in value and equally active. By the age of 4-5, the child develops a strong preference for one of the hands, which in the future will be dominant. And it's either right or left. Less often, both hands are equally active and strong. But since our lives are mostly geared towards right-handed people, left-handed children have a little more difficulty adapting to the world and living a full life. The first thing the child hears is the words of an adult: “Take in your right hand... (pencil, spoon, cube, etc.). And the older the child, the more such “Take it in your right hand...”. Such instructions can result in the development of neurosis, since the right hand for a left-handed person is a reason for the loss of a sense of comfort, for anxiety and worries, for the development of fears and feelings of hopelessness, motor tics and refusal of activity in general. There may not be a problem if you identify in time, know for yourself the presence of dominance of one or the other hand and warn the child’s teachers about it. To do this, you can carry out a number of simple tests: 1. Keep an observation diary, where you record the dominance of your hand over the course of a week according to the criteria: which hand draws easier and more beautifully; which hand throws the ball and catches it; which hand cuts with scissors; which hand drives a “nail” or tightens a “bolt”; which hand does he use when opening and closing boxes? which hand combs her hair; which hand fastens the buttons or zipper; which hand takes a glass of water, etc. 2. Conduct a traditional set of tests: interlacing fingers; "Napoleon's pose"; applause; tests of simultaneous execution of actions (simultaneous drawing of a circle, square, triangle); motor tests (counting alternating taps with the index finger of each hand for 10 seconds) with fixation of the dominant hand, working faster and more clearly. The result of left or right hand dominance is a dominance profile that can be used to judge whether a child is left-handed or not. If the profile is not clear, tests must be performed again after a few days to clarify information about the predominance of one or another hand. Detailed descriptions of the tests are available from M. Ozyas, M. Knyazeva and V. Vildavsky and other authors studying handedness problems in children. Why is it necessary to have this information? Until the age of 5-6 years, most often the issue of handedness does not arise urgently, but in the process of preparing a child for school, parents, educators and teachers begin to sound the alarm about the child’s left-handedness. Our task is to prevent the emergence of various psychological and physiological problems in a left-handed child in preschool age, to help adequately enter the world, refusing to retrain a left-handed child to be right-handed. Refusal to retrain does not eliminate all problems; rather, it raises a number of others, no less important: - this is differentiated training of the child, taking into account left-handedness (how to hold a pencil correctly, how to draw the right line, - this is a set of hygienic requirements for the workplace (right-side lighting, arrangement of accessories , - these are the requirements for tools for work (scissors, pens, pencils for left-handers, this takes into account the functional characteristics of the majority of left-handers (difficulties in hand-eye coordination, impaired spatial perception, increased fatigue, decreased performance, anxiety, excitability). It is important to remember that the main problem of left-handed children - learning the process of writing and drawing - should become a separate type of activity for such children. This is a special system of step-by-step lessons, where everything is important: how the child sits, how he holds a pencil or pen, how a piece of paper or notebook lies in front of him, how elementary graphic movements are performed. Is it possible to help left-handed children avoid serious difficulties when learning to draw and write? Yes! When highlighting the sequence of what needs to be taught to a child, three points should be emphasized: 1. teach the child to maintain the correct posture when drawing and writing; 2. teach the child to hold a pencil or pen correctly; 3. teach the child to correctly coordinate the movements of the fingers, hand, and forearm when drawing and writing. Why? Because the correct posture, the position of a pencil or pen in the hand, coordination of movements allow you to form the correct technique of drawing and writing, graphic skills, and therefore make the work convenient, clear, fast, maintain a feeling of comfort in the process of drawing or writing, create a situation of emotional satisfaction and stability. The material was prepared on the basis of articles by M. M. Bezrukikh, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor.
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