In the world, there are 10-17% of left-handed people. As for Russia, their number is growing steadily every year. This is due to the peculiarities of the domestic education system, because until 1985 lefthanders were forced to write exclusively with their right hand. Today, the situation has changed dramatically and no one is trying to retrain “unique” students. In our article, we will tell you about the psychological characteristics of left-handed children, how difficult it is for them to adapt in the world “imprisoned” under the right-hander, whether they are good at school and in need of help. Let us dwell on each of the above issues.
Who are lefties?
Most people on our planet are right-handed. However, as a result of the features of the development of the brain, the lead may not be the right, but the left hand, which is also considered a variant of the norm. This is due to the different activity of the cerebral hemispheres.
A left-handed person leading has a left hand. This indicates the dominance of the right hemisphere, which is called emotional. It is responsible for creative thinking, instant perception of the image, intuition, imagination. From childhood, such people grow more emotional and artistically gifted. They are better than peers to draw and sculpt from clay, have musical abilities. Along with this, they are characterized by a delay in speech and difficulty in pronouncing various sounds.
The characteristic of a lefthander involves the allocation of such qualities as spontaneity, credulity, sensuality. These children change their moods instantly, resulting in tearfulness, moods, manifestations of rage and anger, perseverance.
The dominance of one of the cerebral hemispheres, and therefore the formation of the leading side of the body in a child, usually occurs by the age of five. Up to this point, children can pick up a spoon, pencil or scissors with both their right and left hands. At this time, it is important not to insist on choosing one or another hand. Then dominance will be established naturally.
Causes of Left-handedness
What contributes to the fact that the left hand, and not the right one, becomes the leading one in the child? Three main causes of left-handedness in children can be distinguished:
- Genetic predisposition. Heredity is the main cause of left-handedness. It is safe to say that in families where at least one of the two parents is left-handed, left-handed children are most often born. At the same time, in the rest they develop along with peers and differ from them by this feature alone.
- The defeat of the left hemisphere. As noted above, the right hemisphere is responsible for left-handedness, and vice versa. Thus, as a result of malfunctions in certain parts of the brain of the left hemisphere, the child compensates for one arm of the other. First, he begins to use his left hand when performing household manipulations, and then when writing and drawing. At the same time, such children often have speech and motor delay, which is associated with damage to the left hemisphere.
- Forced left-handedness. In this case, the child becomes left-handed due to injury or imitation of other children.
In addition, there is a separate category of people who can use both their right and left hands equally well. If such a left-handed person manages to detect a “problem” at an early age, then it can easily be made right-handed. In this case, the cause of left-handedness is the absence of interhemispheric interaction, which is one of the features of brain development.
Psychological features
It is not easy for a left-handed child to adapt in a world where everything is provided for right-handed people. As a rule, the first problems lie in wait for children and their parents already at school. Many things are more difficult for them than their right-handed peers. This is directly related to the psychological characteristics of lefties:
- Phonemic hearing. The ability to distinguish different sounds from left-handed children is formed more slowly than their right-handed peers. Usually they begin to speak later, but often with complex and long sentences.
- Perception of space. Left-handed people are poorly oriented in space; their visual memory and motor coordination are poorly developed. Often such children cannot remember for a long time which hand is left and which is right.
- Orientation in time. Do not be surprised that a left-handed child can not determine the time on a clock with arrows. He can perceive them for a long time in a mirror image.
- Control over mental activity. Left-handed children manage to easily invent new ways of mastering the world of right-handed people. It is much more difficult for them to build verbal lines and images in the traditional way for right-handed people. That is why they achieve the desired results in a roundabout way.
Left-handed children easily fall under the influence of their simultaneous feelings and moods. He is dominated by such traits of temperament as anger, shyness, conscientiousness, and an increased level of anxiety. But at the same time, they are able to earn more than their right-handed colleagues. Among them are many artists, musicians, actors, athletes and artists.
What is the uniqueness of lefties?
The fact that left-handed people differ from right-handed ones is a fact that, by the way, has generated a lot of opinions about their genius and exclusivity. And in every left-hander there really are certain inclinations. The task of parents is to accept the characteristics of left-handed people, to reveal their abilities in time and try to develop them. Then the child in the future will be able to achieve high results in everything.
Among left-handed people there are many gifted and truly brilliant people. The most famous personalities are Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Charlie Chaplin, Aristotle, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie and many others.
Learning abilities
When educating a left-handed person, one should always remember his increased emotionality and vulnerability. The same attitude towards the child is required in the process of his education. Left-handed children even more than right-handed people need approval and praise. For him, a positive assessment of his actions from the outside is important. Therefore, parents in the learning process, both at home and later in the school should not skimp on the praise for successfully completed work. It is important to be able to develop optimism and an active attitude towards life in a child.
Due to their increased emotionality, left-handed children overwork very quickly. Therefore, in the process of their training, it is important to observe the following recommendations of psychologists:
- Compliance with the daily routine;
- compulsory sleep and rest in the daytime;
- short duration of classes (no more than 15-20 minutes for a child aged 3-5 years).
Adhering to the above recommendations, you can avoid excessive fatigue of the child and exhaustion of his nervous system.
Left-handed people have more complicated skills that are familiar to people. It’s difficult to teach them to do everything according to a generally accepted pattern, for example, brushing their teeth in the morning, making a bed, dressing in clothes after the street, putting their things in place, etc. Such children do not remember the procedure, the correct spelling of letters. If you want to teach a child to draw or write beautifully on his own, be sure to purchase a stencil or special prescriptions for children. Only in this case, the baby will get neat images or letters. Today in specialized stores you can even buy a guitar for left-handed people. Learning to play a child with such an instrument will be much easier.
Possible problems at school
Psychologists believe that children with a dominant left hand have some difficulties in school. At least in the learning process, left-handed people should pay more attention to reading, writing and counting than right-handed people. Such children have certain visual impairment and memory impairments. In turn, this leads to the appearance of the following problems in left-handed children at school:
- spelling letters in mirror image;
- slow pace of writing;
- unstable underscore;
- confusion in geometric shapes similar in shape;
- confusion in letters and numbers with similar geometric elements in the spelling.
Most parents of children whose left arm is dominant are familiar with the phenomenon of mirror movements. In some, it is expressed in the form of a mirror letter (the child begins to write the word from the end, that is, from the letter with which it ends). Other children mirror, read and perceive any other information. At school, recipe for children with a leading left hand will help to solve this problem.
As a rule, mirror perception occurs in children under the age of 10 years. If it persists further, the child may need special classes. They will help correct deficiencies in space perception, coordination, and attention.
Left-handed school problems are often associated with his slow perception of information. Such a child will need much more time to write the same passage of text than the right. It turns out that the left-handed student puts more effort on calligraphy, but he often gets worse results. In most left-handed people, the underline does not equalize, but remains so for life.
Simple left-handed test
According to the test results, you can find out about the activity of the cerebral hemispheres of the child, which are responsible for which hand will dominate - right or left. By the way, it is recommended to complete tasks after the baby is five years old. Until this time, the leading in the child can alternately either the right or the left hand.
Test tasks are as follows:
- Weave fingers in the lock. If the thumb of the left hand is on top, write the letter L on paper, and if the right is P.
- Imagine a target and aim at it. If for this you close your left eye while keeping your right eye open, write the letter P on paper. Otherwise, fix the letter L.
- Cross your arms over your chest. If the left hand is on top, write L, and vice versa.
- Applaud. In this case, left-handed children usually beat with their left palm on the right, and right-handed children perform similar actions on the contrary. In the first case, write L on the sheet, and the letter P in the second.
Entries on a sheet of paper made during the test will allow a left-handed or a right-handed child to evaluate:
- PPPP - the child is 100% right-handed;
- LLLL - 100% Left Handed.
Further, the percentage of dominance of the right or left hemisphere depends on which letters will be greater according to the test results. Right-handed people have excellent ability in languages, reading and writing. Left-handed people are more creative and emotional people. They are better than others who know how to dream and fantasize, have good abilities for music and fine art. Absolutely any person can determine the dominance of the hemispheres of his brain, regardless of whether he writes with his right hand or left.
Comparing Right-Handed and Left-Handed
Over the years, psychologists have not ceased to compare the ability of left-handed and right-handed children. Based on the opinions of experts, three main theories can be distinguished:
- Mental activity in lefties is significantly worse than in righties.
- Abilities in children with a dominant left and right hand absolutely do not differ for the better or for the worse.
- Left-handed children have higher rates of neuropsychic activity and are able to adapt more quickly to unusual conditions of the outside world. As a confirmation of this opinion, psychologists cite the example of the famous left-handed people Julius Caesar and Alexander of Macedon.
All three theories have a right to exist and only complement each other.
It is believed that the interhemispheric connections in lefties are not as strong as in righties. That is why they have higher creative abilities, since their imagination is not limited to rigid frames. On the other hand, skills that require interaction between the hemispheres of the brain, they develop more slowly. If we evaluate the emotional side of left-handed and right-handed children, then the latter are characterized by a positive attitude and an optimistic outlook on life, in contrast to left-handed people, who are essentially pessimists.
Do I need to retrain a southpaw?
20 years ago, a child with a leading left hand at school was a rare guest. The fact is that already in the first grade he was necessarily retrained from left-handed to right-handed. Today, things are completely different. Psychologists recommend refusing retraining when working with a left-handed child. Otherwise, there will be a gross and completely unnecessary intervention in the special mechanisms of brain activity. What will be the consequences of these actions, no one can predict and control.
In retrained left-handed people, the following neurotic symptoms are often observed:
- impaired appetite;
- insomnia;
- headache;
- fears;
- enuresis;
- stomach ache;
- stuttering;
- increased irritability;
- irritability;
- restlessness;
- lethargy;
- obsessive movements.
It should be noted that if, for a number of reasons, the leading hand is rejected, then it must be accompanied by the involvement of the second side. In this case, ball games, swimming, sculpting, embroidering, knitting, aimed at developing coordination of finger movements can be useful. Such classes are recommended to be carried out daily for 15-20 minutes.
The dangers of retraining are also evidenced by statistics. According to them, every third student with a stutter is a retrained lefty. Left-handed children often suffer from neurosis. This question is deeply studied to the present.
The lefty is quite comfortable in a world where he is supported and not condemned by his parents, teachers or peers. Such a child may well become a full member of society. In special stores today you can buy everything you need to develop and educate these children, from stationery to guitar for lefties. This will help the child to take a worthy place in the right-handed society.
Parents note
Psychologists confirm that it is impossible to change what is inherent in nature. This is wrong and unnatural. The consequences for the child in this case can be disastrous. And this means that parents are faced with the task of helping their boy or girl to adapt faster and easier to the conditions of the world.
In the post-Soviet space, separate methods for teaching left-handed people to write and read have not been developed. Therefore, they still have to adapt to the world of right-handed people. To simplify this process, parents can do the following for left-handed children:
- organize the workplace so that the light source is on the right side;
- Do not focus the child's attention on tilting the letters to the right when writing;
- perform exercises with children aimed at the development of motor skills and visual perception;
- positively relate to the developmental features of your child.
All classes with a left-handed student should be carried out systematically and take no more than 20 minutes in time. Then he needs to give time to relax, after which he can continue his educational activities.
The characteristic of a lefthander gives an idea of him as a vulnerable, emotional and creatively gifted child. The task of parents is to accept him as he really is and to develop in him all the qualities that are inherent in nature.