In a study published in Developmental Psychobiology, researchers elucidated how infants develop differential handedness depending on task and age. Reaching for food tended toward right handedness by the age of one. However, the manipulation of Lego building blocks was not hard wired into a particular hand preference until three to four years of age. Up until that time, both hands were often used to construct objects.
Although genetic influence exists on handedness, I wondered if it might influence cognitive development in other areas of the brain.
Early handedness has been associated with early development of language ability. Right-handedness co-occurs with fine motor control based left-hemisphere dominance but with language processing distributed throughout a network of brain regions. In multilingual brains, changes to both function and structure of neural architecture can develop after brief exposure to a second language.
I grew up overseas in an English speaking household that moved every two to three years. Yet, until the age of seven, I preferentially spoke the local languages of Thai, Cantonese and German, rather than English. Although fluent in these languages, I spoke little English while still understanding it. My parents and siblings largely spoke English and occasionally the local language at varying levels of proficiency. Returning to the U.S. at eight, I took remedial English and within a couple of years spoke only English. I remained in the U.S until high school.
Growing up I remember being right-handed, although adroit at using both hands and feet. But in my late thirties, I had the Waldorfschule reports (from the German school) translated, and it turns out that I was left-handed. The report noted my refusal to learn to use my right hand. The greater alignment of my primary language use with that of my parents’ native language paralleled my “choice” of right handedness.
How much of our cognitive patterning is influenced by a linkage with external, culturally influenced patterns? How much of our parents’ personality, language choice or surrounding cultural artifacts can alter how the neural patterning develops?