Contents
Lateralization in children
Babies, all ambidextrous!
Whether with his left hand or his right hand, from his first months, Baby tries to catch everything that is within reach! It must be said that your little one already has enough work to coordinate his movements. So do not see it as the harbinger of early lateralization if your toddler is more willing to use one hand than the other.. As psychomotor therapist Marjorie Naudeau explains, the child is not completely lateralized before 6, or even 8 years old. Clearly, their preferential side does not appear until after this age. And if your little one uses one hand more than another, “we’ll talk more about lateral predominance,” explains the specialist. You may also notice that your child is holding his spoon with his right hand and pulling the balloons with his left foot. This is quite normal since “everyone has a laterality at the level of the eye, the foot, the hand, the ear, and all are not necessarily concordant before 6-8 years”, specifies the psychomotor therapist.
What is laterality?
Laterality is related to brain lateralization. This process results in a dominance of one of the two hemispheres of the brain. For left-handed people, it is a predominance of the right hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa for right-handed people.
Lateralization: respect your child’s development
Choosing one hand over another is done gradually. And to achieve this, “it is essential that the child enriches his body diagram”, explains Marjorie Naudeau. Clearly, he must become aware of his own body and understand how it is organized in space. To help your toddler, you can therefore offer him to draw with his hands, his feet, or even his body on the sand, at the beach for example, or on your back during play times.. Patrol workshops with grains of rice and semolina, or gluing are also favorable. “It is also important to play with your child, ask him on which side he has more strength. In fact, you have to get him to ask questions without encouraging him to choose one side, ”says the specialist. Furthermore, ” in order not to influence him, it is better to play next to him, and not in front. Because, as we know, children often act as a mirror ».
Roseline Davido, psychoanalyst and specialist in children’s drawings, also specifies that it is important to “take into account the psychomotor development of toddlers, and keep in mind that everyone is different. We often hear that a child is immature because he does not know which hand to choose to write, but that is absurd ”. Marjorie Naudeau agrees with his point of view. “I see more and more in my practice 3-year-old children stressed by school who are asked in a way to choose a hand. You should know that thirty years ago, students were asked to write in cursive letters in the 2nd trimester of CP, today this is sometimes the case in the second section of kindergarten, ”explains the psychomotor therapist.
Keys in children’s drawings
Left-handed, right-handed… the works of your children can be revealing. According to Roseline Davido, “the lateralization process can be reflected in children’s drawings “. In fact, as soon as they manage to draw tadpole figures, around 3-4 years old, we notice that the little “left-handers” make the profiles of their characters looking to the right, and vice versa for the young “right-handers”.
When your toddler draws, pay attention to their posture as well. “Your child should be comfortable, have his elbows on the table, his feet should preferably touch the ground. If not, you can opt for a footrest, ”advises Marjorie Naudeau. “Let your child orient his notebook or his sheet as he wishes”. Also consider using large markers, which are easier to maintain. This avoids in particular “the twitching in the hands”, concludes the psychomotor therapist.