Never Force Left-Handed Child to be Right-Handed
Update: An edited form of this article was published in
October 2011 edition of Circles Magazine.
I have used my right hand to perform major activities all my
life. Even though my performance has remained average in most cases like
quality of handwriting, sports and sketching, I considered it normal. Some time
back at a family gathering my mother discussed with someone the complexities of
bringing up children and I was surprised to learn that I was born left-handed.
She said she discovered I was left-handed due to the amount
of pressure I exerted on her finger with each hand when two months old. At such
a tender age she made sure my left hand remained immobile most of the time
(though not uncomfortably) and was forced to use right hand freely that
eventually became my dominant hand.
It was confusing for me at first but then a lot of
unexplained habits began to fall into perspective such as attempting to pick
something heavy from left-hand and then switching to right, preferring to chew
food at the left side of mouth, skipping step while climbing stairs in order to
land on the other foot etc. I often thought myself clumsy whenever something
happened and didn’t thought it amiss until I discovered I was left-eye dominant
a few years before the above mentioned family gathering.
I bought a guide for Snooker game and it gave details of an
exercise to know your dominant eye. To increase shot accuracy, you need to
place your Cue Stick beneath the dominant eye when playing shot and the book
stated that born left-handed people, in most cases, have left-dominant eye. As
you can expect, the exercise concluded that I was left-eye dominant. I didn’t
focused more on the details and enjoyed the higher game accuracy that I now
enjoyed.
After the revelation by my mother, I decided to do some
research. As science explains, our brain is divided into two halves
(hemispheres). Left hemisphere affects the right side of your body and right
hemisphere affects the left side of the body. The left hemisphere deals with
logic, words and language, mathematics, science, order/pattern perception,
practical and reality. The right hemisphere deals with imagination, creativity,
spatial perception, “big picture” orientation, symbols, images and feelings. If
the left side of the brain is dominant, the person prefers right hand and vice
versa. Our whole physical being is interconnected ever since we are born and
forcing to go against natural dominance puts a lot of harmful pressure.
What more, about 85-92% of world’s population is estimated
to be born right-handed which also causes some bias against left-handers as
parents under societal pressure, ignorance or religious miscommunication forces
their children to switch to right hand.
Forcing a left-handed to be right-handed causes reduced
activity in the dominant right hemisphere and increase activity in the
non-dominant side. Since creativity and imagination are dominant parts of right
brain, they will remain under-developed and the left-side of the brain sees
increased activity that deals with reality, facts and logic … characteristics
that are opposite of the person’s true potential. The consistent use of non-dominant
part of brain affects the personality while growing up and the adaptability can
be difficult. Forced right-handers have to work a lot harder to improve
handwriting, take more time to adjust in using tools like scissors and knives,
are unable to perform better at activities (like sports) than natural
right-handers, get tired easily and may even have language difficulties due to
possible dominancy conflict between the two halves of the brain.
Comparing this with my own childhood I found some stark similarities.
I had to use children’s handwriting improvement book until 8th grade to finally
able to write clearly. I loved to draw and paint as a child but no matter how
hard I tried I couldn’t improve and finally gave up by 7th grade. I was scolded
repeatedly at home and in class for being a daydreamer and not paying
attention. I always loved stories (and still do) and read fantasy novels most
of my free time. I hate mathematics and enjoy history. I am able to think
logically and analyze in a rather forced way and tire easily compared to when I
am thinking something completely new and imagining a new story or concept to
write down. The number of similarities is too long to fully list down.
There are select few who are ambidextrous (don’t have
dominant hemisphere or so little dominant that it doesn’t affect much) and such
individuals don’t have that much hard time in switching. Unfortunately I am not
one of them and thus unable to achieve my full potential.
This doesn’t mean that left-handers are devoid of logic or
right-handers lack creativity, it just points towards what comes as naturally
and more easily to the person due to dominant side of brain. So if anyone you
know is forcing a born left-handed toddler or child to be right-handed, please
enlighten them and stop them for hindering the child’s growth. It is not
advisable to force and yes, it is not un-Islamic as well to be left-handed as
some believe.
The level of focus required to achieve that proves how much
dominant on side of your brain is.
