What age to know hand preference?

At what age did you know if your child was right handed or left handed?

My son is 3 years 9 mos and does not yet show a hand preference. Even his preschool teachers and therapists comment on this. Some days he writes and colors with his right hand, other days with his left. It's the same way with eating, playing, throwing a ball, etc.

In contrast, my niece just turned 3 and is obviously left handed.

I'm wondering if my son's lack of a hand preference is due to his developmental issues or if this is common in other kids.

My MIL (a child psychologist and former art teacher) says that handedness may not be firmly established until as late as 6 or 7, although it is also common for children to show a definite hand preference before that. :)

Also, I am a leftie, but I do a lot of things right handed. I think its pretty natural for people to do some things with one hand and some with another. In the "old days" they used to strongly discourage children from doing anything lefthanded. But now that this is no longer the common practice, we see kids doing a lot more things left handed or with either hand than we used to.

I have friends who were pretty sure their son was left-handed until he started school. Then he went fully right-handed without a blink.

Some kids show hand preference early, some don't. Some never have a strong hand preference and just do what's easiest. It's all good.

I notice that my DS (age 4) still switches back and forth a fair amount. My DD (almost 2) definitely shows a preference for her right hand.

We also have a 3.5 yo DD who is definately not decidedly a rightie or a leftie. I thought it was natural for them to have a hand preference when it came to things like picking up crayons or paint brushes but she seems to use both. Utensils, sippy cup you name it she really goes back and forth. Glad to know this is the norm!

From an early early age (say 6 mos?) we could see a preference for the left hand . . . however, at almost 4, he was having delays with fine motor skills and sought help from an OT at urging of his preschool teachers. He wasn't doing age appropriate fine motor activities at that point. One of the main problems they found, which was easily corrected was that, although they saw that he definitely favored his left hand, he was switching back and forth, and never creating the dominant hand, which really hindered developing the fine motor skills. Once we got him to stick with one hand, he immediately showed great advancements . . . was drawing people, learned to write his name, cutting, etc.

At the preschool and OT my son attends(ed) hand dominance is really expected to be established by the age of 4, or else it is difficult to keep up with the work that the other children are doing.

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Originally Posted by Gena

At what age did you know if your child was right handed or left handed?

My son is 3 years 9 mos and does not yet show a hand preference. Even his preschool teachers and therapists comment on this. Some days he writes and colors with his right hand, other days with his left. It's the same way with eating, playing, throwing a ball, etc.

In contrast, my niece just turned 3 and is obviously left handed.

I'm wondering if my son's lack of a hand preference is due to his developmental issues or if this is common in other kids.

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Hi,
I remember reading in a children's magazine or book (can't remember the name) that foot preference is established before hand preference. So, if you give the child a ball to kick, they will kick the ball with their dominant leg. I tried it on DD when she was switching hands and actually using her left more. She consistently used her right foot and now at 3 she is using her right hand for writing, drawing etc.
So it worked for me but I haven't tested the theory on any other kids.

We just went through this with Nathan. He was 4 in November and "just" started using his right hand more than his left. I talked to my ped and he said 6 isnt unusual.

DS is 4 in April and we still don't know if he's left or right. Every now and then we think one thing and then he starts using the other instead.

DD has been using her right hand from about 6 months on. DH was forced to choose a hand to write with when he entered into first grade. I guess the answer is that some kids do and some kids don't. Sounds like your little one is normal to me!

DS colors & writes left, bats left, throws right, golfs right (DH bought righty clubs 'cause apparently there's not much selection for lefties), points with both, eats with both (silverware and fingerfoods), and plays with toys fairly equally with both.

He's been 55-45 lefty-righty for a good long while (since before he was 2 unless I'm misremembering). He used to write with both hands, but seems (at 4) to have settled on the left. He may end up as a lefty with righty tendencies :)

DS1 is left-handed, very clearly so. DD is not yet 3 and seems to use her left hand exclusively as well. It could be because she's following her older brother, but I'm inclined to think that she's just left-handed.

DS is 2, and shows a preference for his right hand. However, he's always been a thumbsucker, and sucks his left thumb. As he's started sucking his thumb less, he's started doing more and more with his left hand, and can eat with a spoon or fork equally well with either hand. I'm a lefty, but can do many things equally well or better with my right hand - I eat with either, cut righty, can write (very sloppily, and I only do it when absolutely necessary) with my right hand, play tennis and ping pong lefty, shoot lefty, golf righty, etc. I think DS may be opposite to me - mostly righty, but with the ability to do a lot of things lefty. Time will tell, I guess.

My mom says I was a lefty from about 2-ish. I know I had a strong lefty preference by the time I started kindergarten at age 4.5.

Thank you everyone for the responses. It's good to see that some other kids are undecided at this age as well.

Since DS is an only child, I often find it hard to know what is typical for his age and what is part of his disorder. I also get conflicting info from the school OT and the private OT. So it's always great to see what other people's kids are doing.