Life Span Development II: School age and Adolescence 3 (2+1)
Lesson 3 : Motor Skills in Late child hood
Handedness
Human beings show their preferences in usage of hands for writing and eating etc. This is called handedness. The child’s hand skill is influenced by whether he is right / left handed / ambidextrous. By the time they reach late childhood i.e. 6 years, the child establishes hand dominance i.e. he uses one hand predominantly and shifts rarely to the other.
Child with left handedness gets confused and is frustrated to use the material designed for right handed people. Due to difficulties in changing handedness they may often use both hands and they become ambidextrous due to confusion.
There is a possibility for the child to develop special disorders and nervous tensions if parents insist upon the usage of right hand. Hence teachers and parents should not insist that the child replace left hand skills with right hand skills, instead they encourage the children to use right hand for learning new skills.
The child should be below 6 years, easy going, above average in intelligence and most important of all is agreeable to change.
Participants