Whether a child is left-handed or right-handed is a matter of genetics, right? Fact is, it’s not that simple.
In studies spanning more than three decades, Dr. George Michel, a developmental psychobiologist and head of the psychology department at UNCG, has tracked the development of handedness in infants, from their birth position in the uterus to 18 months old. His research has shown that the position of a baby’s head in utero influences which hand that baby will later use to reach for objects.
Michel has also tracked the role experience plays in determining whether they will grow up to be left- or right-handed adults. “I hope to learn how babies are educating themselves in something even as simple as how they use their hands,” says Michel, noting that about 90 percent of humans are right-handed, including himself.
Currently he’s overseeing a five-year study of handedness in 250 babies ages 5 months to 15 months old. The work is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant totaling nearly $1 million. The children come to the university’s Infant Development Center once a month to, quite literally, play. While sitting on their mothers’ laps, two video cameras capture what happens when various toys are placed within their grasp. The cameras record reaching, contact, acquisition and manipulation of each toy.
“Some children can come in at 5 months old and do everything. They pick up, they play very well,” says Iryna Babik, a student in the developmental psychology doctoral program. “Other kids can do nothing — they are very passive. You can predict their development from that.”
Michel, who in 2001 was appointed editor-in-chief of the journal Developmental Psychobiology, specializes in “basic research” and is quick to defend it. Knowing how babies develop their hand skills may not immediately apply to a particular problem, Michel notes. But it may one day help scientists deal with problems of individual differences in the way in which babies develop mental and intellectual skills — the foundations they use to perform well in school.
Photography by Chris English, University Relations
