Development of hand-eye dominance in relation to verbal self-regulation of motor behavior.

The development of the relation between hand-eye dominance and verbal self-control of motor behavior was examined with 4- and 5-year-olds. Performances of subjects falling into either crossed or consistent hand-eye dominance categories were compared on a two-choice button-pushing task. Children performed this with their dominant hand in one of two conditions: verbalizing and not verbalizing their button-pushing activity. Results showed that crossed hand-eye dominant children gave significantly poorer performances than consistent hand-eye dominant children and that the former used their self-instructions in a motoric manner. These findings were interpreted as supporting the view that the functions of cerebral hemispheres in children with crossed dominance are more immature than those in children with consistent dominance.