LEFT HANDED, NOT LEFT OUT: HELPING YOUR CHILD SETTLE IN WELL

Research reveals that 9 out of ten people are right handed. Therefore the 10% of the population are assumed to be "left out".

Raising a lefty can be a hard nut to crack especially in a society where right handedness is believed to be the normal thing.

The truth however is that left handedness is not new. There are actually three (3) records (not just 3 men) of left handed men in the Bible. All these men were from the tribe of Benjamin and were very strong men who dI'd exploits in their time. (See Judges 3: 12-30; Judges 20:16 and 1Chronicles 12:1-2).

We all need to know that God has great plans for everyone irrespective of the hand you use most frequently.

From my experience from where I come from, the odds are that your child's tutors and people around will want to force your child to use his/her right hand more instead of the left hand.

Here are a few tips to help your left handed child or ward settle well into his/her peculiarity :

1. See your child as Special not Abnormal. Your child is totally normal. Scientists have proof that if your left hand is more dominant, it means that the right side of your brain is more dominant than the left, which favors intuition, emotion, imagination, creativity, and holistic thinking. I particularly admire the left handed people I have related with. They all have an edge over others in one way or more.

2. Regulate your child's company. It is important to let your child see other like - handed persons. This will reassure your child and let him know that he is not odd. You need to tell your child's teachers not to try to "convert" your child.

3. Let your child see him/herself as special and unique. Point out left handed great personalities to your child. They are many so I'll let you do the research yourself. . . Well, Obama is one of them.

4. Reorder yourselves. If you are a right handed parent with a left handed child, you should be in a mirror position for your child to see. That means you stay opposite him/her instead of beside him. The use of the left hand can be difficult where virtually everything has been designed with the right handed in mind. Simplify the issues by eliminating the perception of left or right being correct or incorrect. Let your child use whatever hand is most convenient for him per time for the different tasks. For instance, tell him to open the door with the hand closest to the door knob.

5. Equip your child. Thank God people are getting more liberal with having left handed people around nowadays. Developing writing skills is a major hurdle lefties have to cross. Get your child left -handed friendly materials. Carry out research on how to ease your child's learning process. For instance, since a lefty ' hands move towards his body while writing instead of away from it in the case of a righty, let your child know it is okay to move the book around to make writing easier.

Love your lefty like you love your righty. Embrace each child's uniqueness and help your child do the same.

Lift up their hands.

No more leftie discrimination.

God bless all left - handed persons!

~ OMOSEBI Mary Omolola
© 2016