RFI: Non-Handedness

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Following on (slightly) from the good/bad handwriting thread I have a question for y'sll that the internet, in all its glory, appears to be unable to answer.

I have always had messy handwriting (I mean illegible). One of my teachers at primary school (when I was 7) had me do some tests comparing my left and right handed abilities and came to the conclusion that I was not right handed, not left handed, nor was I ambidextrous. My parents remember it being called 'low laterality' but I can't find a single web page with this specific term in it.

Do any of you know anything about this? In very gereral terms (such as where I can find about more about it) or even stuff as specific as the relationship between it and brain function lateralisation? One of my friends said Gram Parsons had something similar and it made it difficult for him to express himself in normal ways (hence the songs) and also made him clumsy (which I certainly am).

― neil, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I think in "the good old days" we called this condition "being a spaz".

― Bryan (Bryan), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

:-(

― neil, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I was kidding, Neil!!!

― Bryan (Bryan), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

a boy I knew had this problem and took all of his exams using a computer. I think it's recognised medically for sure, I just don't know the name

― penelope (penelope), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Bryan: So was I.

:-)

I am a spaz though.

I took some of my exams on a computer. Someone re-wrote some of them too. It was a bit emabarassing.

― neil, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

did you ever see a doctor or anything to get a 'diagnosis'? (don't know what else to call it)

― penelope (penelope), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm, never though of that. Doesn't really seem appropriate and I severly doubt that there's anything they could do about it.
Not that I's want them to do anything about it cos, knowing what I know about lateralisation of brain functions, I'm sure it has some interesting consequences beyond clumsiness and bad handwriting. Kinda like the way the left handers generally have better spatial awareness and so are better at sports (e.g Tennis) cos their dominant hemisphere (right)contains the dominant spatial awareness functions.

― neil, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

even if it's just recognised though it would stop people like employers/whoever remarking on it and thinking it was just you being lazy or something. would be useful if it has ever caused any problems.

― penelope (penelope), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

It hasn't cuased any problems beyond my bumping into stuff occasionally. One of my teachers did tear up my maths book in front of me when I was 7(ish) cos the handwriting was bad. I was bloody good at maths too.

Cos we all have computers nowadays, the only person who ever looks at my handwriting, cept for my signature, is me.

― neil, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

well, that's ok then i guess - didn't know what sort of job you do

― penelope (penelope), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually work for a software company but I don't like it very much. The weird thing is that, despite my bad handwriting, I'm really artistic. That's what I'm looking to do with myself in the future (after debt, bills etc etc etc)and that's why I'm curious about the handedness thing. It doesn't seem to make sense that I can draw but have difficulty writing legibly.

― neil, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 09:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you dyspraxic? I am (was) and it sounds like how I was as a kid. I got lucky though, was in traction in hospital for something completely different and afterwards I had a series of sessions with a physio to recover form the traction and the physio noticed that I was not terribly coordinated (maybe non handed as you describe), I couldn't really catch or write very well so I was referred by the physio to an educational psychologist who diagnosed mild dyspraxia. 2 years of sessions with the physio doing coordination exercises, psychologist (mainly doing patient writing exercises) and a change of school sorted things out for me. It is very hard to spot if its mild, but it can be treated or rather you can be trained out of it. No idea how one gets to be treated if you are not a kid, all my sessions were at great ormond street hospital, not know for its treatment of grown ups.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmmmm very interesting. See, the thing is, that I can do some handed type stuff quite well. i.e. I'm ok at sport (I can catch, play table tennis, darts in the pub etc) although I occasionally do some thing stupid like trip over my own feet when playing something like football. Not very often but I think more so that other people do. I will investigate dyspraxia tho, ta.

― neil, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

It manifest itself in different ways. I can now only catch thanks to lots of practice which I didn't get as a kid due to being nerdy and not sporty at all. I trip over my own feet, and fall off curbs all the time.

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Sounds familiar. I had a look at some dyspraxia websites (dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk was very useful). If that what I do have then I reckon it's very very mild. It certainly sounds more mild than yours as I've always been able to catch etc.

― neil, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 12:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Not much further with the dyspraxia thing but I have discovered that I have left brain dominance in my hands (i.e i am right handed), feets and ears, but not my eyes! I'm not entirely sure what this means but it sure is interesting!

Apparently, people with mixed dominace can display any/some/all of the following:
emotionality,
inconsistent retrieval of information,
forgetfulness,
tendency to shut down under pressure,
poor test-taking skills,
reversals (sorry, I’m not exactly sure what this one means),
outbursts of anger,
good memory for trivia,
easy to upset but difficult to calm down.

― neil, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

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