PARENTAL HAND PREFERENCE AND MANUAL FUNCTIONAL ASYMMETRY IN PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN

Hand preference and hand skill in 1150 normal children between 3 and 6 years of age and hand preference of their parents were assessed to st udy the effect of parental hand preference on different dimensions of manual asymmetry in children. Children hand skill was measured with a computerized version of the Peg Moving Task which allowed us to split the overall performance into two components, a ''transport time'' and a ''search time.'' Paternal and maternal left-handedness was significa ntly related to child left-handedness. Both components of hand skill a symmetry were reduced with mother's left-handedness and one component (search time) with father's left-handedness. A significant impact of p arental hand preference on child hand skill asymmetry, after controlli ng for child hand preference, was observed. When this analysis was lim ited to strong right-handed children, a greater paternal effect on chi ld hand skill emerged. These results show the usefulness of performanc e tasks in detecting parent-child associations concerning manual funct ional asymmetry.