Hello and welcome.

My name is Melany and I'm an occupational therapist with Alberta Health Services.

In this video, you'll learn about hand dominance.

What it is, how it develops, why it's important, and how to help your child with hand dominance.

Hand dominance is when your child consistently uses one hand instead of the other for skilled activities.

The dominant hand is quicker, stronger, and has more ability or better dexterity for activities.

Your child's dominant hand is also known as their lead or doing hand.

The non-dominant hand becomes the helper or supporting hand.

There are 3 types of hand dominance.

About 9 in 10 people are right.

1 in 10 people are left handed, and a small number of people are considered ambidextrous.

This means both hands work well for skilled activities and are used with equal ease.

Hand dominance is something your child is born with, but it won't be clear until they're older.

This typically happens between 4 to 6 years of age.

Your child needs a lot of practice with activities that require one hand to do and the other hand to help before they discover their dominant hand.

Up to 2 years of age, your child will use both hands equally.

As their play becomes more complex and their independence grows as they learn how to feed, dress, and groom themselves, you'll start to see a hand preference.

This happens between 2 to 4 years of age.

A hand preference means one hand is used more often for routine activities.

For example, using a fork or spoon, throwing a ball, a toy, or picking up toys or food.

Your child may change their hand preference for days or weeks as they try out which hand feels better as that doing hand.

Your child will also switch hands when they get tired.

Hand dominance is typically clear between 4 to 6 years of age.

You'll notice your child consistently uses the same hand for activities that require refined fine motor skills.

Their other hand is consistently used to help or support.

Developing a dominant hand helps your child develop speed, accuracy, and refined skills for activities such as printing, drawing, and using tools.

Daily living skills, like dressing and grooming activities, are all faster and more efficient when done with the dominant hand.

To help your child discover their dominant hand, they need to be able to use a variety of grasp patterns and be able to cross midline and do a lot of activities that require both hands where one is supporting and the other is doing, or bilateral coordination.

You can watch videos in the Fine motor collection to learn about those skills.

To help your child discover which hand will be their doing or dominant hand, place objects at the midline of their body.

Forks, spoons, toothbrush, crayon, socks, toys.

Make note of which hand they use to pick it up.

Keep track over multiple days.

One hand will be used more often.

You can also play throwing games.

Put a ball or bean bag between your child's feet to pick up and throw.

Keep track of which hand they pick up and throw with.

The hand they use most is likely their dominant hand.

As your child discovers their dominant hand, you can help them practice using it.

Have your child carry a basket or bag with their helper hand and collect rocks, leaves, or other treasures when you go on a walk.

Put snacks into containers with screw top lids.

Have your child open the container using their dominant hand on the lid.

Encourage your child to play with stickers, color, or draw.

Have them help with baking or cooking.

Let them stir, scoop, and pour with their dominant hand.

The more your child uses their dominant hand, the more they work on refining the skill in that hand.

This is called dexterity.

Hand dominance and dexterity work together to prepare your child for learning school-aged fine motor activities like printing and cutting with scissors.

Hand dominance is important, but it's just 1 area of developing fine motor skills.

Watch the other videos in this collection or visit the Pediatric Rehabilitation website to learn more.

[Outro]

Find information, support, and services for you and your child by clicking on the link in the description.

​For 24/7 nurse advice and general health information call Health Link at 811.​