For most children, hand preference develops between the age of two and four.
Overall, a clear hand dominance tends to present by the age of six. The simplest way to see which child your hand prefers is to hand them an item in their midline and watch what their hands do.
For example, you could give them a felt tip pen with a lid. Your child will place the pen in their non dominant hand and use their preferred hand to remove the lid, whether that’s left or right. In addition, as therapists, we are sometimes required to provide strengthening exercises or progress dexterity through fine motor tasks.
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