Finding eye dominance on kid

[Adam Gibbs]

Does anyone have a foolproof way of finding eye dominance on a kid? My boy is going to be 4 soon and loves everything outdoors. He watches me shoot and really wants a bow. Looking at kids bows now, it's crazy the amount of adjustment you can have in a bow. The low end of the range should definitely fit him now and all the way up until he starts to hunt if he'd like to.

He's fairly smart and can communicate just fine. I've tried testing his eye dominance the only way I know, by "aiming" at something with your finger with both eyes open and closing individual eyes to see which moves your point of aim. Some days it seems like it's his right, others his left. He throws and colors right and left handed too.

I just want to make sure I'm getting him something that will work for him right away and starting out with the proper mechanics now.

 

[Fowl Play]

I’m sure you’ll get a few, but here’s one. Cut a small hole in a pice of paper/notecard, etc. and have them hold it at arms length. Tell them to center it over a distant object and then cover each eye asking if they can still see it.

Easier than trying to get them to form an opening with their hands.

 

[Agross]

Get em a cheap dual shelf recurve and let em shoot . See what he does, prefers. That’s how my boy started out, and actually is still shooting. I’ve upgraded sizes and about ready to buy him a compound like you are talking about.

 

[Tod osier]

Does anyone have a foolproof way of finding eye dominance on a kid? My boy is going to be 4 soon and loves everything outdoors. He watches me shoot and really wants a bow. Looking at kids bows now, it's crazy the amount of adjustment you can have in a bow. The low end of the range should definitely fit him now and all the way up until he starts to hunt if he'd like to.

He's fairly smart and can communicate just fine. I've tried testing his eye dominance the only way I know, by "aiming" at something with your finger with both eyes open and closing individual eyes to see which moves your point of aim. Some days it seems like it's his right, others his left. He throws and colors right and left handed too.

I just want to make sure I'm getting him something that will work for him right away and starting out with the proper mechanics now.

From what I've read, it isn't always left or right, but sometimes it can be both. I was strongly left eye dominant and trained myself to go right, but I can pick which eye to use on demand.

As was suggested, using a cardboard tube or piece of paper with a hole cut into it looking at a distance object and pulling it towards the face will get you good info.

 

[roosterdown]

I'm a righty & right eyed, been shooting bows since I was a kid myself....and have lots of gear I was intending to pass along to my kids.

Took my oldest son (RH) to the archery shop. The employee grabbed a nice mid-range right-handed youth bow, and we had him draw it back and told him to look thru the peep. He then tried to cross his face over the string to look through it with his left eye. I immediately groaned as I knew what that meant. And it was worse, as I found out the only lefty youth bow they had cost 2x as much.

Karma was apparently not done with me, as I have two younger kids... Daughter is a lefty. Of course, she matches eye & hand dominance, so she got lefty equipment.

Her twin brother is righty. Finally! I get to pass along some gear. This time I did the eye test before going to my local purveyors of archery equipment and know-how....damnit if he's not left-eye dominant too.

Also they disobey and refuse to stop growing.

 

[2muchhp]

Have him hold his thumb out in front of him at arms length. Close one eye then open, repeat with other eye. Whichever is open and the thumb appears not to move is the dominant eye.
You may need to put your hand over his eye.

That was harder to explain than I thought...

 

[Westhunt]

The way I've done it with my kids is have the hold both arms out with hands open, fingers together and thumbs outward. Have them cross their hands and make a small triangle at the web part between the thumb and index finger to look through. If they're old enough, have them look at a distant object and slowly bring their hands back to they eye, keeping the object centered. If that's a little complex for them, you can stand about 10 feet away and have them look at your nose. You can see what eye is dominant by looking at their eye through that triangle hole.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[jbhoward17]

I always use the “make a diamond” trick and frame an image between the “L” made by the indexes and thumbs overlapping from two outstretched hands. I guess that’s the same as the thumb tactic

 

[Jpsmith1]

Make a diamond (or triangle) with your 2 hands, arms outstretched.

Have him 'aim' at your nose.

His dominant eye will be in the diamond.

He can draw that back to his face and it will come to his dominant eye as well

 

[mod-it]

When my son was that age I just got him a little wheel bow to shoot instinctively with fingers. He had a lot of fun with it and got pretty decent to 10-15 yards with it.
When he was 8 I got him a bow that moved him to shooting with a release, peep, and sight. I checked him many times and he showed right eye dominant, we used the make a triangle and bring it back to your face method, and also the "put your thumb over an object and then cover each eye separately" method to see which eye kept the thumb covering the object, it also showed right eye dominant.
Trying to get him sighted in, he kept hitting way left on occasion, would miss the whole target at 10 yards. He couldn't hold one eye shut at that time, so was shooting with both eyes open. I finally covered his left eye for multiple shots and suddenly the way left hits stopped. I even had him go back to his other bow and shoot instinctively, he was shooting way left with it quite a bit too.
So, even though he tested multiple times to be right eye dominant, his eyes were so close that his left eye would still take over some of the time. It wasn't happening at all from about the age of 4 to 8.

It can be a struggle with young kids sometimes, often they don't have a really dominant eye yet. Or, it can change on you.
I say all this just as a dad warning another dad that there can be some struggles. At the age of 4 I think you'd be way better off just getting him a little youth bow to shoot instinctively for a while. Another warning if you do that, many of them come with just a post on the side of the riser for the arrow yet they also come with arrows with plastic vanes. You can't align the fletchings so the vanes won't hit and kick the arrow badly. Feather vanes are your friend for those bows.

 

[Marshfly]

You can't know at 4 years old. You just can't.

I did the test on my son at 7 to purchase him a rifle for a youth do hunt that was happening when he was 8. He tested right eye. So I bought him a right hand rifle expecting that to be it for a while and he killed two whitetail does with it.

Didn't get to hunt for a few years and here we are two years ago, when he's 12 and going through this whole thing again when he is shooting clays at some summer camp. Come to find out he is 100%, zero doubt left eye dominant. He now shoots a left hand bow and a lefty Tikka.

Kids are so adaptable that they will fool the crap out of you when they are young. Proceed with caution...

 

[TheM1DoesMyTalking]

For testing kids that young, when communication and coordination are still rapidly developing, I have just handed them a kaleidoscope or even a paper towel tube and had them look through it. Make note of what hand and eye they use and monitor this over a number of uses. Don't explain what you are looking for, you don't want them to overthink it. Make it playful (spy glass, pirates, bird watching, etc) and see what they do over time. It may change, but eventually you will see a pattern and have a pretty good idea of eye dominance that can be confirmed at an older age as many have described here.