Article
Version 1
This version is not peer-reviewed
Object Skill Advantage for Infants with a Hand Preference
Version 1
: Received: 29 July 2024 / Approved: 30 July 2024 / Online: 30 July 2024 (09:05:37 CEST)
How to cite: Marcinowski, E. C.; Michel, G. F.; Nelson, E. L. Object Skill Advantage for Infants with a Hand Preference. Preprints 2024, 2024072428. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.2428.v1 Marcinowski, E. C.; Michel, G. F.; Nelson, E. L. Object Skill Advantage for Infants with a Hand Preference. Preprints 2024, 2024072428. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.2428.v1
Abstract
How infants engage with objects changes dramatically over the first year of life. While some infants exhibit a consistent hand preference for acquiring objects during this period, others have no identifiable preference. The goal of this study was to test whether lateralization confers an advantage in the development of early object skills. We examined whether lateralized infants show different rates of growth in how they interact with multiple objects as compared to infants without a hand preference. In a longitudinal design consisting of seven monthly visits from 6-12 months, 303 infants were assessed for hand preference and object management skill (i.e., holding up to three objects). Group-Based Trajectory Modeling (GBTM) identified three hand preference trajectory groups: Left, Right, and No Preference (NP). A Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (HGLM) found that Left and Right infants differed in their linear and quadratic slopes and transitioned from holding one to two objects more quickly than NP infants. While all infants showed similar trends in object management skill across time, lateralized infants had an advantage. Further work is needed to determine if this early object skill advantage cascades to later more complex object handling.
Keywords
infants; handedness; hand preference; lateralization; object skill; manipulation
Subject
Social Sciences, Psychology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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