Retraining for left-handers: New hope for children and adults!

Retraining for left-handers: New hope for children and adults!

International Left-Handers Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, August 13, 2025. On this special day, the issue of left-handedness and the controversial re-education of left-handed people comes into the focus of society. Eileen Gödtke, an experienced occupational therapist in Guben, offers special retraining courses for retrained left-handers who often struggle with various difficulties.

Her practice mainly involves children whose handedness is still unclear. Many parents and kindergartens are often the first to become aware of this peculiarity. “Especially in our right-handed society, it is considered ‘not normal’ for children to use both hands equally often,” explains Gödtke. To determine the dominant hand, she uses modern video diagnostics. Children must perform various fine motor activities to determine this.

Health consequences of re-education

An increasing number of patients in Gödtke's practice are adults who suffer from difficulty concentrating, fatigue and other secondary problems that often result from their re-education. “The primary consequences of retrained handedness can be very pronounced: they range from memory disorders to reading and spelling difficulties,” says the occupational therapist.

Surprisingly, many adults only realize years later that they are retrained left-handers. Retraining, which takes individual needs into account, includes specific finger and graphomotor exercises for the left hand. It is emphasized that a daily exercise session of 20 minutes is necessary to achieve the desired progress. Many report more energy and improved skills after returning to school.

Early detection and support

The ability to be left-handed can be established as early as 12 to 16 months of age. According to experts, as described in the article on lefthander-consulting.org, it is crucial to avoid the early influence of the environment on handedness. There is an increasing demand for specialist advice for specialists. Occupational therapists, special educators and doctors play an important role when it comes to finding suitable everyday items for left-handed people or counteracting motor skills deficits at an early stage.

Relaxed writing behavior should also be encouraged in order to minimize later problems. The topic of left-handedness is often neglected, particularly in preventive examinations, meaning that potential difficulties for the affected children go undetected.

Handedness retraining can reduce some of the primary consequences, but is not a miracle cure. Comprehensive support and preventive measures are essential to mitigate the negative effects of past re-education attempts. Further information on this topic and handedness testing is available at ergotherapie-krasemann.de to find.