Hand preference is determined by genetics

Generally, most people are right handed. When a child uses one hand more consistently than the other hand and is more skilled at tasks when using that hand, this is considered to be the dominant hand. This is also referred to as hand preference.

Your child's preference for the right or left hand may start to appear as early as six to nine months of age but you won't be able to determine true right or left-handedness until your child is two or three years old. Hand dominance is greatly influenced by genetics. If both you and your partner are left-handed, your child has a 45 to 50 per cent chance of being left-handed as well.

While children often swap hands in fine motor tasks, it is good for a child to develop strength and dexterity in one hand to help him develop accuracy and speed with fine motor tasks, particularly handwriting. This does not mean that the other hand should be neglected.

In fact, the other hand has an important role to play as them assistant hand, or "helper" hand – for example, holding the paper still while the dominant hand writes or manipulating the paper while the preferred hand cuts with scissors.

There are four main types of handedness. Right handedness is the most common, occurring in 70 – 90 per cent of the population while left handedness affects about 10 per cent. In mixed handedness (cross-dominance), one is able to do different tasks better with different hands like to write better with their left hand, but throw a ball more efficiently with their right. Ambidexterity occurs when a person is able to do any task equally well with either hand.

If you're curious about which side is going to become dominant in your baby, try offering her a tempting toy. If she's started to develop a dominant hand, she's more likely to use that one to reach for it. It is wrong to attempt to influence your child's hand preference, since neither is superior.

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