Show DONT TRY TO CURE LEFT HANDED CHILD AUTHORITY ADVISES By y MYRTLE MEYER ELDRED I Brine Bring your our problems about diet general care and man management ement t to Myrtle Meyer Eldred Your questions ques ques- lions will be answered promptly if you ou will silL send a self-addressed self 3 cent stamped envelope with your letter to lo Mrs Irs Eldred in care re of the Your Dab Baby and Mine d department department depart depart- part part- ment of this newspaper It Is simple enough to tell moth mothers rs that nothing should be done to force children en to use the right hand when manifestly the left leCt hand is the more I natural for them but this is sel seldom om satisfying Why A moth mother r a. a aks ks Please tell us something about left Can anything be done done- for or the very young child Or should anything be bedone bedone bedone done We have come far from the period when to use the left hand was considered considered considered con con- m merely rely a perverse habit of or the childs child's which should be stifled by any treatment nt however cruel We now look upon left handedness as merely ind indicative of or a physical makeup make mak up which is the opposite of the more ordinary one I I I In the right handed child the thc left hemisphere of or the brain controls the muscles of ot the right hand In the left handed child it U is the right side of ot the brain which is the one actively actively ac- ac concerned Why the motor control should be different in one or another child is then not a matter mailer of training but of physical Inheritance Inheritance inheritance inherit Inherit- ance It Il is possible to train left handed children to lo u. u use e the right hand and vice v versa but it is not a smooth natural natural nat flat ural flow of oC control from brain to hand but one which has to be shunted about like a train on a switch The n net t r result of or this t-ils a ward shunting of ot impulse to action of in simpler words of oC the desire for tor the hand to act and the action of the hand is that the action i itself is is less nimble and accurate and In addition addition addi addi- tion the thc speech is apt to be affected The Tile research into the causes of speech defects brought out the astounding astounding as as- astounding numbers of such victims who showed left handed tendencies w which ch had been checked Because of oC this it has been su suggested that to force a left handed child to use the right hand is an easy path to fo stammering slam stam mering and other sp speech ech disorders Our leaflet Left Handedness may be c obtained by sending a self self- addressed 3 cent stamped envelope with your request to Myrtle Meyer Eldred in care of the Your Baby and Mine department of this news news- paper It is apparent that In training babies it is desirable to offer octer utensils and toys to the right hand Then if the child persistently changes chang s these to the left Jel and proceeds to use that with greater ease eare and competency allow him to lo do so o When school age arrives tell his teacher that he is left handed and if sh she is as modern as she should be bein bein bein in her thinking she will in no way check the childs child's tendency to use the left hand for writing drawing drain and the making of figures He should be beas beas beas as privileged to make easy use o of his natural hand as is the right right- handed person |