It Doesnt Mean Youre Artsy
Southpaws also have a reputation for being introverted and artsy, says Grimshaw. Its an interesting contrast to views from a few decades ago or before, that stereotyped left-handers as somehow mentally or morally inferior, she says. However, the stereotype doesnt reflect reality. In a 2013 study, Grimshaw and her colleagues found no difference between left- and right-handed people on any of the five personality measures they tested. They did, however, find that mixed-handers were more introverted.
What Qualifies As A Hand Disability
To qualify for disability benefits for lost hand function, you will need to show that your condition is so severe that it does not allow you to perform gross or fine movements needed for your job. Hold, grasp or perform movements using your entire hand. Pick, pinch or perform movements using your fingers.
The Most Common Difficulties In Reading By Left Handed Children:
- Remembering letters quite slowly
- Confusing similar letters
- Do not recognise letters in an inverted form, i.e. shaded, crossed out, without one of its elements
- Sometimes reading right to left or from the middle of the page, jumping through the lines
- Difficulty combining single letters into words
- Spending the majority of time on reading during reading technique tests due to their slow reading pace
- Not understanding what has been read if there are variations in the correlation of a word, even though the reading technique has been mastered
In some cases, left handed children easily memorise individual letters, but find it difficult to combine them into words. When reading, they “drop out” entire syllables of words, do not pronounce endings or say them erroneously.
The difficulties often faced by lefties described above arise due to various reasons: violations of visual/spatial perception as a result of unstable ocular dominance, as well as difficulties in processing and storing information.
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How Can I Be A Lefty
Use your left hand in everyday stuff, such as serving a volleyball, eating breakfast, etc. Keep writing the “quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” because it uses every letter in the alphabet. Use your right eye while using your left hand for writing. Start changing your handedness at an older age like 20.
Can You Draw Disability For Being Left Handed
Disability programs are designed to help those who are unable to work. Being left-handed can be inconvenient but does not prevent someone from working. The Mouthwire article claiming left-handed people are eligible for disability is completely false. Being left-handed does not prevent someone from working.
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It May Up The Risk Of Ptsd
A 2007 Scottish study found that left-handers were more likely to display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after watching clips from a scary movie. Other studies have found that non-right-handers experience more negative emotions. Both findings could be due to the fact that non-righties are more likely to have unusual brain lateralization, which could affect the way their brains process fear and anger.
How Do Left Handed Children Learn To Read
Of greatest interest is the fact that they successfully learn global reading, but when studying individual letters they experience serious difficulties: each letter is studied over a long time period and there is a lack of fluency in letter-recognised experienced by these children. Children have difficulty sounding out written words, matching the letters to sounds to be able to read a word.
ifficulties in reading that left handed children experience are very diverse.Some children experience them from early stages of literacy education, while others occur at a later stage while reading texts. In comparison to right-handed people, left-handed people are 2.5-3 times more likely to have difficulty in mastering written speech — in both writing and reading.
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Its More Common In Twins
Identical twins are sometimes mirror images of each otherone twin has a mole on her right cheek and the other has a mole in the same spot on her left cheek, for instance. It was once believed that twins genetic makeup should be mirrored as welltherefore, one twin should be left-handed and the other should be right.
Neither of these is true, but left-handedness is about twice as common in twins than in the general population. A 1996 Belgian study found that about 21% of twins, both fraternal and identical, are left-handed.
It May Cause You To Think Differently
Society tends to associate the left side of something with the bad , and the right side with the good . But if youre left-handed, you might not think the same way as righties, according to a 2009 Stanford University study. Participants were shown two columns of abstract illustrations and asked which seemed more intelligent, happy, honest, and attractive. Righties were more likely to choose the illustrations in the right column, while lefties were more likely to choose the drawings in the left column. For left-handed people, implicitly, they think good stuff is on the left and bad stuff is on the right, even though consciously, explicitly, everything in language and culture is telling them the exact opposite, the studys lead author said in a press release. He believes this may even influence the way we vote on ballots, or which candidates we prefer when watching presidential debates.
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Left Handers And Alcohol Consumption
A 2011 study published in The British Journal of Health Psychology indicated that left handers reported consuming more alcohol than right handers. This study of 27,000 self-reporting participants discovered that left-handed people tended to drink more often than right-handed people.
However, in fine-tuning the data, the study concluded that left handers were not more likely to binge drink or become alcoholics. The numbers did not indicate a âreason to believe that it is associated with excessive alcohol consumption or risky drinking.â
It appears that left handers have other disadvantages when compared to right handers. Some of these disadvantages can, in some cases, be related to future healthcare issues and access.
According to a 2009 study published in Demography, left hand dominant children are liable not to perform as well academically as their right handed peers. In skills such as reading, writing, vocabulary, and social development, left handers scored lower.
The numbers did not substantially change when the study controlled for variables, such as parental involvement and socioeconomic status.
A 2014 Harvard study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives suggested that left handers in comparison to right handers:
- have more learning disabilities, such as dyslexia
- have more behavior and emotional problems
- complete less schooling
- work in jobs that require less cognitive skill
- have 10 to 12 percent lower annual earnings
Rise In Acceptance Of Left
In 1999, Swiss researchers took 1,700 Swiss adults ages 3474 and divided them into age groups, with the youngest being 3544 and the oldest being 6574. The researchers found almost twice as many people in the youngest age group considered themselves left-handed when compared to the oldest age group. In addition, the incidence of the older group switching to their right hand for writing was more than triple that of the younger group. Researchers found that among the four age groups , the prevalence of left-handedness declined from 11.9% among 35 to 44 year olds and roughly 12.5% among 45 to 54 year olds to roughly 8% among 55 to 64 year olds and 6.2% among 65 to 74 year olds. Additionally, researchers found that only 26.6% of 35 to 44 year olds switched to right-handedness for writing and roughly 73% wrote with their left hand. Among 45 to 54 year olds, roughly 52% write with their right hand and roughly 48% write with their left hand. Roughly 85% of 55 to 64 year olds wrote with their right hand and roughly 15% of 55 to 64 year olds wrote with their left hand. 88.9% of 65 to 74 year olds wrote with their right hand while 11.1% wrote with their left hand.
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Lefties Make Better Artists
Southpaws have been bragging about their creative clout for years. But is it true does being left-handed mean youre also more likely to be artistic or innovative?
According to research published in the American Journal of Psychology, there is some evidence that left-handed people have the upper hand in at least one creative facet: Theyre better at divergent thinking, a method of idea generation that explores many possible solutions.
To determine whether lefties were more likely to pursue creative careers than righties, the folks behind the Left-Handers Club surveyed more than 2,000 left-handed, right-handed, and ambidextrous participants and found that lefties tended to find advantages and be drawn to careers in the arts, music, sports, and information-technology fields.
But that may also add up to lower paychecks: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, left-handers salaries are 10 percent lower on average than those of right-handers.
Some Disorders Appear To Be Linked To Being Left
- Read in app
HANDED people, already burdened by minor inconveniences in a right-handed world and by a language full of such ego-deflating figures of speech as two left feet, out in left field and left-handed compliment, also seem to face an increased risk of certain disorders that can further impair the quality of their lives.
A series of new studies show that left-handed people are more likely to suffer from learning disabilities, stuttering, migraine headaches and, according to the latest findings, autoimmune diseases, like ulcerative colitis, myasthenia gravis and celiac disease, in which the body attacks its own tissues.
The researchers emphasize, however, that their findings do not mean that left-handed people are at a biological disadvantage. Rather, they consider left-handedness an example of ”biological diversity” that may be disadvantageous in some ways and beneficial in others.
”Until you look at the full range of conditions and overall life expectancy among left-handed people, you cannot say whether it’s a disadvantage,” said Dr. Norman Geschwind, a leading researcher in the field. ”It could be that left-handed people have only half the rate of lung cancer that right-handed people do.”
”I think left-handedness is only a marker of what I call anomalous brain dominance.” Dr. Geschwind said in an interview.
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Its Linked To A Risk Of Mental Health Problems
People who are left-handed are at greater risk of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, according to a 2013 Yale University study. When researchers polled patients at a mental-health clinic, 40% of those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective said they wrote with their left hand thats considerably higher than the 10% of lefties found in the general population. Studies have also found links between non-right-handedness and dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and some mood disorders.
Overall 40% Of Us Are Left
Its funny to spot these strange asymmetries in action I often find myself holding the phone with my left hand and pressing it, rather awkwardly, against my right ear, whilst scribbling down notes with my right hand. If ease was the biggest consideration, this odd arrangement certainly doesnt deliver. Its all about playing to our natural strengths.
Overall 40% of us are left-eared, 30% are left-eyed and 20% are left-footed.
But when it comes to handedness, only 10% of people are lefties.
Why could this be? Why are left-handers in the minority?
You can be ‘right-eyed’ as well as right-handed
In times gone by, left-handedness was drummed out of errant schoolchildren, and oddly negative connotations still linger in our language. The word left comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lyft, meaning weak. And the opposite in Latin is dexter which is associated with skill and righteousness.
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Is Being Mixed Handed Bad
Mixed-handed children more likely to have mental health, language and scholastic problems, study finds. Summary: Children who are mixed-handed, or ambidextrous, are more likely to have mental health, language and scholastic problems in childhood than right- or left-handed children, according to a new study.
Lefties Like To Booze
Next time you have a run-in with a boozed-up barfly, check out which hand hes holding his whisky with: chances are, itll be his left.
For years, myth has held that left-handers are more likely to become alcoholics. Research into the topic was murky, however, and relied on small samples. But a survey of more than 25,000 people from 12 countries has cleared things up a bit. While lefties are not more prone to alcoholism, they do drink more often.
Researcher Kevin Denny, who examined the data for a paper published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, says the main takeaway should be debunking that whole left-handedness-alcoholism link. There is no evidence that handedness predicts risky drinking, he stated in a press release. Hence, the results do not support the idea that excess drinking may be a consequence either of atypical lateralisation of the brain, or due to the social stresses that arise from left-handers’ being a minority group.
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Left Handers And Periodic Limb Movement Disorder
A 2011 study from the American College of Chest Physicians suggested that left handers have significantly higher chances of developing periodic limb movement disorder .
This disorder is characterized by involuntary, repetitive limb movements that happen while you sleep, resulting in disrupted sleep cycles.
The Connection Between Left Handedness And Learning Difficulties
It’s important to note that the mental development of a left handed child still leads to heated scientific discussions to this day. Scientists argue about the origin of left-handedness, the differences between left-handedness and the lefty, the specifics of their mental development and language processing. There is a clear conclusion, however, amidst all the discussions: among the population of people with reading disabilities, the number of left handed persons is significantly higher than right handers.
Analysing the cases that I had to face, I can definitely confirm the high frequency of the disorders mentioned among left handed children.
Related article in the New York Times:Some Disorders Appear to be Linked to Being Left Handed
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Southpaws Will Beat You In Sports
Golf legend Phil Mickelson, tennis ace Rafael Nadal, boxing champ Oscar de la Hoya did you know that a number of your favorite sports superstars are lefties?
Actually, left-handers may have the advantage in sports that involve two opponents facing each other, such as in tennis, boxing, and baseball, according to an MSNBC review of the book The Puzzle of Left-Handedness, by Rik Smits. The author chalks it up to the fact that left-handed athletes get a lot more opportunity to practice against right-handed opponents than vice versa .
Now thats a home run for lefties.
You Have A Higher Risk Of Breast Cancer
We all need to be diligent with monthly cancer self-checks, but this is especially important if youre left-handed. In a study in the British Journal of Cancer, researchers found that left-handers have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer, especially after menopause, than right-handers do.
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Does Being A Lefty Affect Health Creativity
Lefties grow up feeling different, and eventually treasure their uniqueness. Browse the Internet and you will find hundreds of famous lefty names: Leonardo da Vinci, Ringo Starr, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein. A whole tennis tournament: Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors. Even Jack the Ripper was a leftie. Who knew?
What causes us to be left- or right-handed? And do lefties really have a greater risk of certain disorders and diseases, as some studies have shown? Are lefties more creative? Can being left-handed even influence sexual orientation — as a new study suggests?
Or are lefties wired very much like the rest of us and at no greater risk of anything simply because they favor the left hand, as Paul Satz, PhD, chief of the neuropsychology program at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, tells WebMD.
The debate goes on. Case in point: In the August issue of the journal Psychological Bulletin, researchers report finding a “significant” relationship between handedness and sexual orientation. Compared with heterosexual participants, gays had 39% greater odds of being non-right-handed, writes study author Martin L. Lalumière, a researcher in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at the University of Toronto.
What causes us to be left- or right-handed, however, is undecided. Here are the theories:
Your Handedness May Determine Your Health
Scientists have also found an increased risk for dyslexia, ADHD, and certain mood disorders in left-handed people, according to a 2010 study published in Pediatrics. Researchers are not exactly sure how to explain this phenomenon, but many believe it’s related to how the brain is wired. Your noggin is divided into two halves: the left side and the right side. Most people rely on the brain’s left hemisphere for tasks like language functioning. But about 30 percent of left-handed folks are either partial to the right hemisphere or have no dominant hemisphere at all. According to scientists, having one hemisphere dominate is much more efficient, which is why some left-handers are at increased risk for learning impairments and brain disorders.
But lefties may be in luck when it comes to other health conditions: Results of a large survey published in the journal Laterality found that left-handers had lower rates of arthritis and ulcers.
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Laterality And Functional Dominance
- The 33 students observed in AF2 and AF3 included 15 females and 18 males.
- Seventeen, or 51.5%, are cross-dominant, characterized by the predominance of the right hand and the left eye
- Eleven, or 33.3%, are manually and visually dominant only on the right, while five, or 15.1%, are manually and visually dominant only on the left.