I’m very surprised! I’ll have to do an informal survey amongst the kindergartners at school. I might even ask my own students (ten-year-olds) and see.
I can’t wink at all (I’m 39) - I can kind of squinch up the right side of my face and it FEELS like I’m winking, but I’m SO not …
Can’t even get CLOSE on my left side.
As for sneering, although I never thought about it until I read this thread, I can do it on my left side only.
I don’t think my daughter (almost 4) will be able to wink either … she takes after her wink-deficient mom.
My son is 20 months old and can wink with one eye… Only the right one though… when he tries the left one he ends up closing both eyes… it’s cut to watch him concentrating on it
The weirdest thing I beheld in my newborn son (and I mean mere seconds after he was born - I was just getting to hold him) was that he looked up at me with one eye closed. Then after a few moments had passed, he closed that eye and opened the other one. “Lather, rinse, repeat” a couple of more times until it was time for grandma to hold him.
For what it’s worth, he’s now 9 years old, and he’s smart as a whip but suffers from severe myopia and ADHD.