Cross eye dominance has been discussed here in the past but my question is child specific. My 6 year old son is very right handed and very left eye dominant. Has anyone tried correcting cross eye dominance in children? Is it a good or bad idea?
I am left handed and right eye dominant. I shoot handguns left handed with only a slight adjustment in my head position. Fortunately, I learned to shoot rifles right handed aligning with my dominant eye. My wife is right handed but left eye dominant. I taught her to shoot handguns and rifles left handed. This works well for her aside from manipulating the right handed controls on rifles.
So I am wondering how to best proceed with training for my son. He has been showing an interest for getting into shooting so I figure it is time to pull out the old BB gun. Any suggestions on if I should think about changing eye dominance or how best to proceed with the cross eye dominance would be much welcomed.
I am left-eye dominant and right handed. I learned to shoot a BB rifle left handed when I was a kid and then learned to shoot a pistol right handed. My brother was mean, much older, and strongly left handed, so I learned how to box as a southpaw. I don’t quite know how to explain this, but over the years my brain figured out how to shift dominance on its own. Now I’m fully ambidextrous with firearms. A few years ago I learned how to write left handed with little to no trouble. That corresponded with a suddenly leap in understanding of mathematics that I didn’t have before and new ease learning foreign languages.
I don’t know what that means for your child, necessarily, other than I expect it will eventually work itself out if you don’t turn it into a big deal.
I’m not too worried about it all just know that it is easier to switch things up when younger. When he picks up his little foam rifle he likes to line it up with his left eye and shoulder but hold the handle with his right hand. Looks very awkward.
On the eye/hand/brain connection front- I did read that left eye dominant people can sometimes have a harder time reading. My son was very into learning to read a year ago but has since lost interest in reading for himself outside of his kindergarten class. Likely not connected but who knows.
I imagine they are connected. There are people who specialize in adapting teaching methods to kids learning styles, which can be correlated in some cases with handedness. Schools used to have some pretty astute personnel who dealt with such things, but we’ve scared most of them off. There are still some privateers out there and if you have the means, it might be worth the investment.
2 very wise quotes in 2 posts. He is batting 1000. Impressive!
I’ve said here before that I had corrective therapy for several years as a child for poor ocular muscle coordination. This usually results from a disparity in the visual acuity between the eyes. It involved lopsided glasses, eye patches, and weekly visits for prism exercises. “Make the bird go inside the bird cage, Ken.” Repeat a dozen times. Next slide, please.
I’ve always been cross-eye dominant and have exceptional fine and complex motor coordination. That’s even with an essential tremor. So this sort of stuff can be overcome. I tend to be a bit slower on the uptake with new skills than the most athletically gifted among us, but I catch up and overtake most eventually. And I’ve always been ambidextrous, which is a gift I appreciate more with age.
I would not want a child of mine to be left-handed any more than I hope she has dyslexia, but I don’t fear cross-eye dominance. It isn’t that big of a deal. I encourage you to teach your son to do everything right handed. Without interfering with that, I’d also experiment now and then with “Awesome! Now let’s try that left-handed – just for a challenge.” If he seems highly ambidextrous, you can encourage that somewhat. But never, never forsake the right-hand-dominant base line: right is right and left is wrong! Too many things in this world are made by and for right-handed people to ignore this reality.
As a lefty I can agree with this sentiment. I am fortunate in that I learned to do most two handed activities right handed. My main question here is how to move forward with rifle training. It seems hard to go cross eyed with a rifle unless I teach him to squint. Which goes against my both eyes open is better for most things view of how the world works.
My strongest opinion on this regards rifle/shotgun shooting. I would absolutely fight very hard to teach a left-eye-dominant child of mine to shoot long guns right handed using the right eye. I squint just before trigger press with iron sights and have zero issue with optics (both eyes open). 99% of the long guns he ever encounters will be right-handed firearms. His cost will go up exponentially if he has to acquire left-handed long guns. This isn’t a theory for me. I have coached clays and fly casting and outfitted many wingshooting trips for South Paws. It’s not pretty unless they are independently wealthy. Most fly reels are now ambidextrous, but always set up for left hand retrieve from the factory. But guides are used to right-handed anglers. They run their boats for right-handed anglers instinctively. Very few are (like me) adept at casting with either hand and can stay focused to run a boat for a left-handed angler all day. Get it?
“The man is richest whose pleasures cost him least.”
Reading everything on here somewhat makes me sad because I stopped my baby girl from using here meft hand from a infant . She does very well right handed but now I am thinking what if I had not changed her
While I value my left handedness (considering it puts me in my right mind;) there are many things that would be easier if I was right handed. So any disadvantages you may have created are likely outweighed by the positives. Parenting is hard. All you can do is make the best decisions possible with the information available to you. And keep in mind that today’s well meaning experts will likely end up be tomorrow’s wrong headed villains. Every situation is unique so the “best” general advice isn’t always the best for everyone.
Thanks for the input. I will give the right/right a try with the little guy. My wife showed no real hand preference when holding a firearm but did seem to have issues lining up the sights with her right eye which is why we went the left handed route for her.
I ran into this a lot in Boy Scout Summer Camp when I was the firearms instructor. We would gather the scouts up in a big circle and have them hold their hands out in front and make a hole between their thumbs and look at my nose. I would do the Left, Right, Right, Left thing for the whole group. MOST of the kids were cross eye dominant. So we would try to put them into the eye dominant position but it rarely worked. Being kids and the Scouts safety was huge, so eye pro was always on upon entering the range.
I took my own lesson from the Navy Rifle Team and kept a couple of 2" circles made out of a plastic milk jug attached to a paper clip. I would slip this over the lens of the shooting glasses for the non handed eye and “poof” the kid wasn’t fighting the sights. Much easier and much more enjoyable for them (and us). I even diagnosed some significant eye issues when covering up the dominant eye resulted in the kid not being able to see well at all out of the other.
Wayyyyyyyy down in the weeds if you want to go there I discovered that I had a very sight cylinder reading in my right eye (ophthalmic measurement for glasses having to do with the length of the eye) and my brain (which is much smarter than me) made me left eye dominant. We’re talking 20/5 L and 20/10 R so it was never picked up on a regular eye exam. When I got my old man glasses because my arms were too short I got the correction 0.25 cyl. After 2 years of wearing them I am no longer left eye dominant but non dominant and I can switch back and forth by blinking one eye or the other.
P.S. It was the school nurse who told my parents to take me to an eye doc PDQ when I was in 1st grade, way back in the early 70’s. At first, they thought I was dyslexic or had ADD, and they were sending me to talk with the school counselor every Wednesday. But the nurse was smart enough to check the eyes. Bingo! So she told my folks to get me to an eye doctor. Turns out I was suffering from such severe eye strain that I would answer the first 4-5 questions, do the first half dozen math exercises correctly every time; and then just start faking it. By the time I hit high school, I had better than 20/20 vision in both eyes. Today, I am .25 diopters stronger in my left than right in near vision only.
I believe it can be done. I am predominantly left-handed, and left-eye dominant, but after I learned how to proficiently shoot my pellet rifle, I taught myself to shoot right-handed, and use my right eye to aim with. When I began shooting pistols as an adult, after learning to shoot with both eyes open, left-handed, and became comfortable with my ability, I then as a challenge, learned to shoot right-handed, using my right eye to aim, both eyes open.
I gather because I had previously learned to do many things either left- or right-handed, or both, that I found it easier to switch hands shooting pistols. As I do practice more with my left-hand, I am noticeably better left-handed than right-handed, but inside 15 yards I will not have an issue with hitting the target with either hand.
Being left-handed, I have learned to do many things right-handed, but I feel my left-handedness is actually a strength, as I can do many things with either hand that those being only right-handed cannot do. I recall one early event that made that evident. At a Thanksgiving dinner with lots of relatives all crammed together at the dinner table, as there was no elbow room to my left, I began eating with my right hand. One of my relatives immediately noticed I had switched hands and was surprised that I could do that. It also is an advantage when crammed into booths, with the wall on your side, at restaurants to be able to use either hand to eat with. I can use chop sticks right-handed, too, but clearly better as a lefty.
Interestingly, I use the computer mouse with my right hand, even upside down, I can do it. I have a lot of difficulty using my left hand to control the mouse, but I can easily use a touch pad with my left hand. Though I can write with my right hand, it is horrible.
Well, my wife and my son are both right handed and right eye dominant. Myself and my daughter on the other hand are both right handed and left eye dominant. My daughter made a decision to shoot and train shooting left handed. It’s worked for her just fine, even built a left handed AR. I tried to fight it for a long time but decided eventually to do what feels most comfortable and what provided me with the most accuracy. I shoot with both eyes open but indeed favor my left eye when shooting pistols. Slight adjustment of head and hand. Lord make me fast and accurate. Amen!
. She does very well right handed but now I am thinking what if I had not changed her