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From: rs55611@ihuxk.UUCP (Robert E. Schleicher)
Newsgroups: net.med,net.kids,net.social
Subject: Re: Changing Left-handedness to Right-handedness
Message-ID: <1006@ihuxk.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 14:18:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxk.1006
Posted: Thu Aug 15 14:18:09 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 03:24:51 EDT
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> References:
> 
> 
> A friend's preschooler always seemed to prefer using his left hand.
> His mother has been trying to change him into a right hander.
> She bought him a toy baseball glove for right handers, and when she
> takes out the coloring books, she instructs him to use his right hand
> "so he'll have fewer problems when he goes to schood."
> When he was a toddler, she refused to hand him any candy, toys,
> or other objects until he finally reached with his right hand.
> 
> The boy is generally obediant, so he uses his right hand for printing
> his name and coloring, though his coordination is much worse than
> other children his age.
> 
> Though this attempt to switch hand preference may work, I wonder
> whether it might have bad repurcussions later.  Do any readers
> know of any psychological or social problems that can be caused
> by the attempt to change a child's "handedness"?  How might this
> affect his learning ability in school, his aptitude for sports,
> and his social self-confidence?
> 
> 	Frank Silbermann

My wife's kindergarten (maybe 1st grade) teacher tried to force her to
write with her right hand, even though she was left-handed.  This caused
all sorts of problems, for the good part of a year, until the teacher
was finally convinced to lay off.  Although there's no way to prove a
connection, there was one very interesting phenomenon that occurred
at the same time:  my wife started writing letters/short words in
"mirror-image".  The same teacher was convinced that my wife was
learning-disabled, and should be moved to special education.  Shortly
after being allowed to write with her left hand, the mirror-image
problem went away by itself.  My wife has been very successful with
her education since them (MBA, etc.), and is obviously very thankful
that one mis-guided teacher didn't get her slotted for life as someone
with a learning problem, when no real problem existed.

Bob Schleicher
ihuxk!rs55611