A longitudinal study on hand use while building a tower

Abstract

The aim of the study was to describe a developmental trend of hand use for picking up and stacking blocks from the age of 18 months to 7 years. A second aim was to determine whether there is a relationship between right-hand use while building a tower and manual laterality at school age. A total of 28 children were asked to build a tower at five longitudinal assessments. The use of the right hand fluctuated considerably with age (p<.05), but no age-related increase was observed. Right-hand use was rather prominent at 18 months, decreased significantly at 26 months, increased at age 4;7, decreased again at 5;7, and finally increased again at age 7. From age 4;7 onwards, the percentage of right-hand use for stacking the blocks was significantly (p<.05) related to the laterality quotient at school age.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project number P16984-B02. We thank Dr Jasmin Dibiasi Pansy, Dr Heidemarie Engele, Dr Christa Fast, Dr Manfred Danda, Professor Helfried Rosegger, and the staff of the Neonatology Section at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical University of Graz, for helping to recruit families for the study; and Mrs Sujata Wagner for styling the English. We are indebted to the children and the parents for their generous cooperation.