lefty or righty did he chose the correct hand?

You will hear a lot of nonsense about mixed dominance. In all this there is about a teaspoon of fact to a gallon of highly imaginative theorizing.

I happen also to have mixed dominance/ ambidexterity like your son. I paint and do crafts and use tools with either hand, whichever reaches into the corner better. I do have trouble remembering left and right, simply because they make little difference to me. On the other hand, I am great at visualizing in 3D and in fact I teach 3D advanced calculus, so it isn’t all bad! Rotating and mirroring in space come easily, and if I had been ten years younger in a less prejudiced generation I would have finished the professional engineering degree — as it is I did go back and get the math degree, and am filling out the applications for another try at grad school.
Over the years I learned to write with my right hand — like your son, it didn’t seem to make much difference — and favouring the right has made it stronger, but that’s habit rather than innate.

Whichever hand, lots and lots of experience with craft and hobby tools is invaluable.

He is young enough that change is still reasonable. Watch him doing *fine* work — painting details, working with a small screwdriver, picking uip things with tweezers, meccano sets, etc. If he is 50-50 or close on that, he might as well use his right for writing. If he favours the left more than 60% of the time for fine work (ratio of at leat 3 to 2 in which hand he chooses to use with the small tool), then maybe you can talk to him about re-learning to write with the left. He would have to re-learn the habits — and not slide back and use both hands, which would be confusing. On the other hand, while re-teaching you could get those directions straight at the same time. This would be a whole-summer project and a full year of watching to avoid backsliding, so check thoroughly before trying it.

I agree with Victoria. Stand at his midline and hand him something and see which hand he grabs it with. Pass him scissors at his midline and see which hand he reaches and cuts with. Did he shift from one hand to the other? Also, which hand does he brush his teeth with? Is it consistent? Observe him, unobtrusively and see if there is a stronger preference - 60% or more as Victoria suggests is a good guideline.
Karen

Thanks I will pay more attention to the fine motor tasks and keep a log.

It is not easy getting him to do fine motor tasks. He often cries. He finds fine motor difficult to do. He said it makes his hands tired. Exspecially art projects at school that require tearing paper into small pieces.

Thanks again

My daughter and I were both very slow to develop fine motor. We finally do develop, we do all sorts of arts and crafts, but we’re in our late teens or twenties before it all comes together. We both developed a real resistance to using scissors after some over-emphasis and pressure in kindergarten. Speaking from experience here, you have to work a very fine line with your son — DO have him do crafts and mechanical things and encourage him actively, those fine motor skills need practice, and the muscles in his hands need to get stronger; but DON’T force him past his strength, which is both physically harmful and develops that emotional resistance. It is better to do five or ten minutes of handwriting practice a day, slowly building up both skill and strength, than to try to do longer sessions that end up with failure and fighting.
I also have a campaign against yellow pencils, wich are very fatiguing and teach exactly the wrong muscular habits of pressing down instead of moving smoothly. They also teach the erasing addiction (one minute writing to five minutes erasing) that is so common. Throw out the yelow pencils, and I mean that literally; I write constantly but there are none in my house, a few drawing pencils in the art drawer and that is it. Practice handwriting on a whiteboard with a wipe-off marker — kids like this and it develops a smooth motion. Put an alphabet guide in a plastic protector sheet and use the wipe-off marker to trace over the directions daily. For paperwork, use superfine markers and good quality rolling writers only, and yes I do math in pen too (and I’m a math major) — it is perfectly legal to cross out mistakes.

#1…[b]Victoria[/b], what in the heck fire is 3-d advanced calculus?

#2…[b]AnneV[/b], Like, you cannot go back in time, eh? That Kindergergarden teacher should have let your child naturally become one hand or the other. But, bless teachers, that is one of the most noble jobs.
Does he like baseball? I think that the hand he picks for batting could help you determine what “hand” he is. Is there any good old fashioned sprt he likes? Like, mini golf or something that uses a club or what have you? For the sake of finding out what “hand” your son is, a little sporty day could be the most harmless way to find that out.

merlin — 3D advanced calculus: well you can calculate things like the volume of any object you can describe with graphs, or the surface area; or how much electricity is passing through a surface …

merlin — 3D advanced calculus: well you can calculate things like the volume of any object you can describe with graphs, or the surface area; or how much electricity is passing through a surface, or what the average temperature of the atmospher is, or allsorts of fun stuff… .

I tried a few things out. He seems to choose his right hand over his left to complete tasks.

When I hand him objects at midline he takes it with his left and passes it to his right and then uses it.

brushes teeth, cuts, writes with right hand. As far as batting he chose his right hand to bat but was not hitting the ball often. I asked him to switch hands and bat lefty. I asked him if it felt uncomfortable - he said no but he like it better the other way. Here is the thing - he did not miss a ball I threw at him. We where only standing 5 or 6 feet away because we where using a fabric ball but his aim was a 100% better. Guess maybe that is because he is left eyed?

I think he is able to use both hand.

I guess I will let him use his right hand. I can only wonder if he chose it because it is one less thing that makes him different.

I was only wondering because of his handwriting. I can do somethings well with my left hand also but I am definitely right hand dominate because I do better with my right.

Thank you

I was thinking a lot about this issue the other day … I was replacing a pane of glass in the window; after the winter we had a hot spell of over 30 C / 90 F with humidity so I opened the window and the “temporary” tape holding it fell off, then we had a cold spell of 10 C / 50F and I had to put it back in; anyhow, didn’t want to take the whole &**^ window out of the frame, and up here in the north we have permanently installed storm windows, so there I am reaching one hand out under the window sash ,up and around in between the two windows, edging the glass back into its slot and then smoothing the silicone seal from the wrong side of the window; then cleaning up the overflow and fingerprints with a single-edged razor blade. This is a real feat of patience as well as some coordination. Well, I found myself once again doing this tricky work with my left hand. It all depends what the angle is, but this particular one the left arm went in better than the right — right holding the silicone pump, left smearing the goop along the outside edge, and left scraping with the blade. My point here is that being able to use both hands is a *good* thing! This kid may have a future as a craftsman or artist or engineer. Yes you do need to teach writing — teach it as a *physical* skill, for one thing more effective and for another this kind of child will respond that way. But then encourage all the other arts and crafts and skills possible, and work with that spatial skill.

If a child has a preference for a particular hand then he should use that hand. But if a child does not perfer a particular hand (like it sounds like your son was in kindergarden), then he should be taught to write with his right hand because it make life easier for him because lots of desks and things are designed that way.

Yes that makes sense. I am going to keep helping improve his penmenship with his right hand. He seems to prefer it for writting. Thank you all for your advise. I am also going to still incourage using both hands for other tasks. He is left eyed, so for some sports he going to need a strong left hand. Thanks