swapping hands for writing on different parts of the page

[muddleduck]

DS1 (4) is in reception.
When he writes or draws he swaps which hand he uses depending which side of the page he is writing on. This means that he mainly uses the left for writing as this is where his words usually start IYSWIM. But if for some reason he starts writing on the right hand side of the page then he will use his right hand. I think his writing is better with his right hand so it seems like he is making life hard for himself.

He has always done this BTW - his childminder noticed it really early on. For example he would draw a circle in two parts, half with each hand. She commented that this was unusual.

I asked his teacher but she hadn't noticed and didn't know what it meant.

[mankyscotslass]

I'm sorry I can't help, but will be interested in any answers.

DS is 4, in nursery but one of the oldest having an October birthday. He too swaps hands depending on what side of the page he is writing on, and what kind of shape he is drawing. His grip seems more comfortable in his left hands but he insists on using both!

I know its now unheard of to be ambi-dexterous, but he does seem to be maknig it hard for himself too.

[beautifulgirls]

My almost 4 year old does this a lot too - I think she is probably left handed but there is no clear "winner". My 5 year old has been very clearly left handed since she was about 2years old - never swapped hands. Perhaps though our 4 year olds need to be a little older still to decide for sure?

[mankyscotslass]

Probably! It's very strange as both my elder DC were obviously righthanded from very early on.

[muddleduck]

At one point there was muttering about him having trouble "crossing the midline"

[mankyscotslass]

not unheard of to be ambi dexterous.

[hhunter]

My DS was exactly like this (he is now 8). The school just advised us to leave him to find his 'dominant hand', but he has found fine dexterity slow to develop and his handwriting is not great. They don't seem to be worried and he uses his right hand more now. He could cross the midline, but just chose to use the hand nearest to whatever he wanted, or one crayon of different colours in each hand!

My younger DD is very right handed and we now realise he was ambidextrous from birth, really. Could be handy (no pun intended) in later life!

[muddleduck]

thanks hhunter.
how are his gross motor skills?
DS is a bit unco-ordinated wrt to jumping, climbing etc and I have wondered if these things are related...

[hhunter]

Hi muddleduck. His gross motor skills are OK - he isn't particularly clumsy or ungainly, and he can throw and catch OK, but he isn't going to be playing anything for England! We did look out for those things but haven't seen anything of concern.

[mankyscotslass]

Ds seems a bit clumsy, but his fine motor skills are good. He can do the younger meccano himself and fixes transformers and stuff (that he has pulled parts off)