Infant Hand Preference and the Development of Cognitive Abilities

Authors

George F. Michel, The University of North Carolina at GreensboroFollow
Julie M. Campbell, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Emily C. Marcinowski, Virginia Commonwealth University
Eliza L. Nelson, Florida International University
Iryna Babik, University of Delaware

Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2016

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Frontiers in Psychology

Volume

7

DOI of Original Publication

10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00410

Comments

Originally published at http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00410

Funded in part by the VCU Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund.

Date of Submission

February 2017

Abstract

Hand preference develops in the first two postnatal years with nearly half of infants exhibiting a consistent early preference for acquiring objects. Others exhibit a more variable developmental trajectory but by the end of their second postnatal year, most exhibit a consistent hand preference for role-differentiated bimanual manipulation. According to some forms of embodiment theory, these differences in hand use patterns should influence the way children interact with their environments, which, in turn, should affect the structure and function of brain development. Such early differences in brain development should result in different trajectories of psychological development. We present evidence that children with consistent early hand preferences exhibit advanced patterns of cognitive development as compared to children who develop a hand preference later. Differences in the developmental trajectory of hand preference are predictive of developmental differences in language, object management skills, and tool-use skills. As predicted by Casasanto’s body-specificity hypothesis, infants with different hand preferences proceed along different developmental pathways of cognitive functioning.

Rights

Copyright © 2016 Michel, Campbell, Marcinowski, Nelson and Babik. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Is Part Of

VCU Physical Therapy Publications