Teaching a Student Who is Ambidextrous

[Enigma]

I tutor / teach / play with a student who is 5-years-old and I have noticed, when working on her motor-coordination skills, that she subconsciously and naturally switches between her left and right hand with effortless easy for many tasks – including writing, cutting, pointing at pictures, opening and closing doors, drinking water or milk, etc. To a certain degree, she favors her right hand ever so slightly more than her left but is able to use both equally well – I did a writing activity with her in which I asked her to write out the ABCs – write “A” with her right hand first, then again, next to it, with her left hand, then “B” with her right hand and again, next to it, with her left hand, etc and barring 2 letters (W and G) both sets of writing were practically identical.

Does anyone know any advantages or disadvantages that she may encounter with learning (ESL as well as learning in general) that I should be aware of, as well as any activities I can work with her on to further develop this outstanding ability.

I’m no doctor or scientist but I believe it is my responsibility as a teacher to assist, nurture and develop this ability as much as I am able to – especially as she is exhibiting it at such a young age. I have always been fascinated by people with who are ambidextrous and would really like to encourage and help her to utilize this ability to her advantage as much as possible.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[acjade]

Your student is still in the stage of refining her eye-hand- motor skills. She needs lots of free painting, playdough, block-building and ball game activities.

Sadly this won't happen in her classroom as the tinies are forced into fine motor skill activity way too early and most Chinese teachers force the children to write with their right hand in little squares from left to right in relentless sequences.

[Lotus Eater]

Ambidexterity is rare at birth. Most ambidextrous people today were originally left-handers, and through culturization (ie schools/parents who did not understand that it is a variation of normal) were forced to become ambidextrous. Again most implements were designed for right handers, so left-handers had to learn to use them - e.g tin openers.

Some Irish research has shown that dyslexics can sometimes have familial history of ambidexterity. Along with a list of other stuff, ambidexterity can be an indicator of potential learning problems.

However, having said that: Michelangelo, Einstein, Ben Franklin, Fleming, Tesla, James Garfield were ambidextrous. Landseer was ambidextrous and taught Queen Victoria to be with her painting.

Playing many musical instruments requires a degree of ambidextrity - piano easiest example to see. Some sports require a level of ambidextrity - swimming.

Many people will use one hand for the majority of their activities and switch hands for a few others. I ride and drive predominantly left-handed, but do most other things including writing with my right hand.

I find it interesting to watch how people eat - it seems to be, on casual observation, most Australians will use their fork in their left hand and eat, while Americans will start out with the fork in the left hand and then switch to right hand after cutting or whatever - not sure if that is a valid observation or not.

[Becster79]

Lotus, I'm like the Yanks when it comes to eating, I always swap my knife and fork throughout the meal....I feel really self-concious about it, but I just can't eat normally .

I am right handed but I also use a can opener in my left hand, it's impossible on the right, I also mainly hold bottles (e.g water) in my left hand. Never really thought about it all before now!

[Enigma]

Thanks for the tips, Acjade!

I am quite familiar with her parents and they seem to be rather open-minded so I think if I chat to them about encouraging her to develop this “skill / talent / ability”, they might just consider it.

I guess I would like to help her and find ways of helping her to develop her it further but would also like to be aware of any difficulties she may have in learning and, at the same time, not hinder or do any damage to the natural course of its development.

[cheekygal]

Most likely in school she will be forced to write with her right hand - apparently if one writes characters with left hand they can't be as refined and good looking (so many Chinese believe).

I teach International students in a Chinese school. And quite a few of them are left-handed when they write in English and when they write comments or translation in Chinese (because the school is Chinese oriented, so Chinese naturally and equally becomes their mother tongue despite of their background and citizenship) they still use their left hand. So, I guess in general the school is more open minded.

In your case, if the students tends to do things with both hands - encourage her to do it. There won't be any harm if she does that. Just don't force anything on her. It could be just a stage and later on may be in a year or more (or less) she might choose either hand. Either she'll remain like that forever. As was said before, ambidextrous people have good imagination and are creative. So, concentrate rather on those things.


www.braincourse.com/ambia.html
www.lcmedia.com/mind262.htm