Handedness as a determinant of lateral bias in human functional cradling (2023)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The wife is right-handed whereas I'm left-handed, and we both currently prefer cradling with our non-dominant arm; my prevailing driver is head control (while standing), whereas hers is both head control and dexterity during feeding (while sitting).
Despite our daughter being just a month old and 9 lbs, the wife is already remarking that she's starting to get "heavy". As our child puts on more weight, I'm expecting to see the wife use her dominant arm more to cradle in certain scenarios, predicated by the baby's growth outpacing her arm strength buildup. In contrast, my non-dominant arm is notionally several times stronger than her dominant, so I suspect there will much fewer reasons for me to pivot as the child grows.
As an aside, I truly do find it strange that child weight doesn't appear to be taken into any meaningful consideration. I understand that an innovation out of Europe which spread like wildfire in the US are car seats with rotating carriages (delayed adoption speculatively due to safety regulations). Many years ago, a close friend was first exposed to them when renting a car while on vacation in Iceland; he claimed that the UX of moving his daughter in and out was such a "game changer" that he immediately ordered one upon return, and it was one of the first things he recommended when I was soliciting wisdom in the months before my child was born.
For instance, I hold a pen, fork, soldering iron etc. with my left, but use a mouse with my right.
Cross-Dominant
1. Mixed preference: A cross-dominant individual favors different hands, eyes, or feet for different tasks. For example, they might write with their right hand, eat with their left hand, and kick a ball with their left foot.
2. No clear dominant side: They lack a single, strongly dominant side of the body, leading to a mixed pattern across various activities.
3. Potential Challenges: Cross-dominance can sometimes be associated with minor difficulties in coordination or activities requiring single-sided precision.
Ambidextrous
1. Equal Skill: A truly ambidextrous individual can perform tasks with equal skill and control using either hand. This includes tasks that require fine motor skills, like writing.
2. Rarity: True ambidexterity is relatively uncommon.
3. Developed Skill: Often, ambidexterity is a learned ability and not an innate characteristic. People can train themselves to use both hands with near-equal proficiency.
In Summary:
Cross-dominant: Mixed hand/eye/foot preference for different tasks. Ambidextrous: Equal proficiency in using both hands for almost any task
I think learning to cut with scissors is one of the main ones for little kids, you can try to cut left handed with a "normal" right-handed pair of scissors, but seeing where you're cutting is just harder.
When used in American English I think the derogatory aspect is no longer present but that’s my opinion
I'm right-handed, but do some other things left-handed too, like holding the knife in my left hand while eating. This has always seems much more logical to me, since the knife is a secondary tool. I hold the fork in my right hand regardless of if my left is holding a knife or not.
I also notice that when raking leaves, or mopping a floor, I can never make up my mind which handedness feels more comfortable, and just switch between them.
But I was very handed when it came to holding our daughter. Always her head on my right side, whether cradling or with her head on my shoulder. I didn't have a problem doing simple tasks with my free non-dominant (left) hand, but cradling a baby seemed too important a task to give to it!
Same, unless I'm cutting roast beef with a kitchen knife where the knife is the primary utensil.
I think I could easily do the cutting with fork-left/knife-right, but as soon as I imagine the actual placing food into my mouth, I want my right hand.
For example as a kid I had to use left handed scissors or I couldn't cut things, now I use right handed scissors in either hand. I switch my mouse to my right and left hand sometimes without thinking about it. My brain just transparently maps the right click to my left hand index finger. I throw with my right arm and shoot right handed, but when it comes to tool use I seem to be ambidextrous. This said, I can only write with my left hand.
It is secondary overall, but during the act of cutting itself it is the primary tool — the fork merely holds the food in place. Thus the differing "European" and American etiquette standards for utensil-holding (maintain fork in left hand vs. switch when cutting).
("European" in quotes because it is not ubiquitous across Europe [1])
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_utensil_etiquette
What is most interesting to me is that we even have these arbitrary standards for social class judgement.
When I was in Europe I made myself surprisingly uncomfortable trying to emulate the utensil etiquette of the people I was eating with. It was doubly painful when we ate pizza, which I wanted to pick up, fold in half and eat with my hands.
I feel similarly. I think with a lot of these tasks, the stakes are low and the dominant hand can have an adequate effect in either placement.
On the other hand (ahem), I do not feel this way about shoveling snow. I have to use my dominant hand on the far end of a snow shovel because I can generate more power with more control that way (despite my right arm having less muscle -- per my other comment about my experience agreeing with this article, I hold my child with my left arm and now have more muscle on my left arm as a result). I think the aspect of being able to control the power feels more important because shoveling snow feels like, if I screw up the motion, I can potentially cause injury to myself.
"How Being Right or Left-Handed Affects How We Hold Things"
Discourse on rhetoric.
This is a good example of how ChatGPT often gives answers that seem plausible but are incorrect.
The paper itself is actually refreshingly clear and direct.
I only thought about this recently because I had a 'test' on my body that determined my left arm had more muscle than my right arm, and the person administering the test asked if I am left-handed as a result of this. I couldn't figure out why this would happen, thought about it for a day and realized the common repetitive motion I do that might strengthen my left arm significantly is holding a 20+ lb child.
My left pectoral is noticeably (to me) larger than my right dominate one. Not sure if that is the recruitment effect or if I somehow favor that side when lifting.
However, smell (and taste, but I don't think that is relevant here) is processed ipsilaterally and vision/hearing have some ipsilateral processing so maybe I am wrong and it IS strengthening their left brain and leading to right handedness.
My arms are out, palms up. A baby lays face down across my forearm, head toward my outside elbow. My hand has a firm hold on the upper part of the inside leg, the other leg hangs to the outside.
It's a very secure hold. I can bring them into my chest if the sight of it failed to clear a path.
Oh and I didn't wear a watch.