On the other hand

One in ten boys and slightly fewer girls are left-handed. As a nanny you could well find yourself looking after a 'southpaw'.

In left-handed people, it is the right hemisphere of the brain that controls the dominant left hand, the opposite to what happens in right-handers. The left hemisphere interprets details and reasoning; the right hemisphere interprets information through visual or creative clues.

This means that left-handed children are likely to be especially creative and have good spatial judgement and the ability to project 3-D mental imagery. Left-handers also have a dominant left ear, eye and foot. In practice, it follows that left-handers are likely to be good at sports, in particular tennis, golf and fencing, as well as music and the arts.

According to some neurologists, left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater. While this is all very interesting if you care for a left-handed child, it does not mean that you should push them towards learning an instrument or joining a swimming club.

The disadvantages that some left-handed children can experience are that they are often slower to develop hand-eye co-ordination, manipulative skills and reading and writing directionality. Some of this may be down to the fact that teaching and learning equipment is usually geared to right-handers. There is no evidence to suggest that left-handers don't keep pace later on.

The golden rule is, never force a child to eat, write or do anything else with his right hand if he is more comfortable using his left.

HOME LIFE

There is no need to single out the left-handed child in your care as different from anyone else. However, there is a lot you can do to make their life and learning run smoothly. If you also have right-handed children in your care, for example, you should make sure the left-handed child sits at the end of the table, or at least give them a little extra space so that they do not jab elbows while they are eating. You can also avoid drinks constantly being spilled at the table by placing their cup slightly to the middle, but on the left. Set the table in the usual way, but do not comment if the child swaps cutlery about at the start of a meal.

When helping you set the table they are likely to place the knife on the left and fork on the right - you can simply swap them round for those who are right-handed and ask them to do the same next time round, because 'it's always done like that'. In this way you're preparing them for what they'll encounter later in life.

It may seem to you that the left-handed child is clumsier than other children. This could be because the development of hand-eye co-ordination is slightly slower, as already mentioned, or because furniture, houses, equipment and toys are all designed by right-handed people for right-handed people. Doorknobs are on the right, toilet flushes are on the right; even computer keyboards are designed for those with a dominant right hand. It will take the left-handed child time to get used to this.

EQUIPMENT

You can help the left-hander by providing equipment that will help rather than hamper their development. When a left-handed child uses ordinary scissors to practise cutting out, they will have to push thumb and index finger together in an unnatural way, and this can cause marks and soreness in the hand. Having to look over the top blade all the time will also obscure the child's cutting line and slow down the whole process. Scissors designed for left-handers have reversed blades so that, however they are held, the left blade is always on top and the cutting action of the left hand pushes the blades together to give a smooth cut and a clear view of the cutting line (right-handers, try using a pair to find out!).

When it comes to drawing and writing, left-handed children frequently have a poor pen grip and bad posture that comes from trying to compensate for their difficulties. The work produced is often smudged by their hand or arm, and they have a tendency to cover up what they have just written when they may need to see it. Pens and pencils made specifically for left-handers are ergonomically designed to encourage the 'tripod grip', and allow the child to see what is in the process of being written or drawn.

Once children start school there is also a wide range of equipment that can help - rulers that are scaled from right to left, so the child's hand doesn't cover up the measurements; reversed sharpeners that allow for holding the pencil in the left hand and that can be turned anti-clockwise when sharpening; watches with the winder on the left. It is also important to remind school staff each year that the child is left-handed, and similar children can be placed to sit next to each other, to avoid clashing elbows while they are working.

THE LEFT-HANDED NANNY

If you are left-handed you are in good company. Michelangelo, Leonardo de Vinci, John F Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi - the list of history's left-handers goes on and on. Being left-handed should not be a disadvantage, but to make everyday life easier there are also plenty of items designed for left-handed adults, as there are for children. If you get irritated by coins falling from your purse whenever you open it, you can buy a left-hander's purse that has a fully reversed design to get round this problem. If you consider yourself a dab hand at cutting hair there are hair-thinning scissors around, as well as kitchen scissors and garden shears, all with a reversed mechanism. Manicure sets for left-handers are also available.

Suppliers

* Anything Left Handed 020 8770 3722 www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk

* R U Left Handed 0800 781 5338 www.ru-lefthanded.co.uk