Hand Preference in Young Deaf Children of Hearing Parents

Abstract

The videotape records of 20 young deaf children of hearing parents were examined for hand preference during the children’s production of signs and non-sign actions. When the study began, the children ranged in age from 2 to 5 years. The children were videotaped over a period of several months. Analyses of the videotape records revealed that the large majority of the children showed a distinct preference for their right hands in their signing. This right-hand preference for signing was much stronger than the children’s preference for their right hands in their production of non-sign actions. Moreover, the children’s right-hand preference for signing was evident in their first videotaped session and con-tinued throughout subsequent sessions. Signing hand preference was not significantly related to how long the children had been signing. These results are interpreted as reflecting a fundamental hem-ispheric asymmetry for language or complex motor processes.