In this week’s podcast, I sit down with fellow Occupational Therapist, Marga Grey, author and developer of “Co-ordikids”. Together we explore the importance of establishing a consistent hand preference or dominance for learning.
So what’s the big deal!? It’s kind of cool to be able to use 2 hands right? Well, not necessarily. There are some people for whom it doesn’t make a difference, but very many of the children that we see in our clinics have challenges with dominance and several other issues as well, reading, writing, co-ordination and thinking skills.
Whether you’re a teacher or a parent, it’s definitely something to watch for!
It makes sense then to focus on helping children work towards developing a dominant hand, and in today’s podcast we cover some fun and effective ways to help the process along naturally.
You might be surprised at how many learning skills are connected to this key developmental milestone! In our discussion we cover:
- Why it’s so important to have a dominant hand
- Why never to force a change of hand preference
- How it develops
- The link between dominance and executive function
- Tips for developing dominance in play and daily life
References:
S.P.Springer and G. Deutsch: Left Brain Right Brain: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuro-science (New York: LW.H.Freeman, 1999), p.22.
N.Doidge: The Brain’s Way of Healing (Victoria, Australia: Scribe Publications, 2015). P 297.
Here is the link to an example of the kind of exercises to help encourage the development of hand dominance from Marga’s website.
Marga has also prepared an article that summarizes the contents of this podcast for your convenience – you can find it here.
