Dyslexic or Ambidextrous?

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Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? chris1234 #49322 06/13/09 06:13 AM
Joined: May 2007 Posts: 982 L Lori H. Member
Lori H. Member L Joined: May 2007 Posts: 982	Originally Posted by chris1234 Actually, as I read this wiki article, I guess the correct term for this might be 'mixed handedness'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness The Wikipedia article mentions birth stress as a possible cause. My son had a difficult delivery and possible mild birth asphyxia. Nobody else in my family that I know of is ambidextrous. His highly gifted half-brother is left handed and his very bright, high school football star cousin is left handed, but everyone else in the family is right handed.

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? chris1234 #49328 06/13/09 11:05 AM
Joined: Jun 2009 Posts: 20 L lilglik Junior Member
lilglik Junior Member L Joined: Jun 2009 Posts: 20	Just to clarify, my son sees perfectly-having perfect vision-no actual sight problems. He is gifted in the VCI and reads at 10th grade level even though he just finished 4th grade, however, he had tracking problems/lazy eye (corrected by surgery) which caused him to use both hands. I was told by the vision therapist that tons of kids with tracking issues (can't be seen on regular eye doctor visits) use both hands. It was just a thought. Good luck to you!

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? lilglik #49393 06/15/09 06:36 AM
Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 921 J JJsMom OP Member
OP JJsMom Member J Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 921	Interesting... My left eye doesn't go left. I mean it will, but I have to force it. I cannot remember what exactly it's called. I was in all kinds of therapy for it, etc... I also have had the same Rx, only in that left eye, for the past 20 years. I wore reading glasses for tracking issues myself, but none of it corrected the issue with the eye itself. Now, I have an Rx in my left eye for astigmatism, hmmmmmmmmm... My son doesn't actually use his left hand for much of anything now. But I'm guessing it could be still the issue for him.

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? Lori H. #49511 06/17/09 06:02 AM
Joined: May 2007 Posts: 982 L Lori H. Member
Lori H. Member L Joined: May 2007 Posts: 982	My son took a lot of tests yesterday but we won't find out scores for several weeks. He told me he took a timed test and I think it might have been the pegboard test. I think he said he put pegs into tiny keyholes as fast as he could. He said he was 20 seconds faster doing this with his left hand. We had him write with his right hand when he couldn't seem to make up his mind which hand to use in Kindergarten.

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? Lori H. #49516 06/17/09 06:53 AM
Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 1,897 chris1234 Member
chris1234 Member Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 1,897	Lori - interesting! I think 20s. might be a huge difference. I am looking up ds' numbers to see what the difference was there. Yeah, both below 40seconds, so 20s could be a pretty substantial difference between hands. Our ds was average on right hand, and above avg. on the left because most people are relatively slower there and his left was just a little high time wise. They also count 'drops', but ds8 did not drop any it looks like. Not that you want to go all obsessive over this one portion of the testing, and until you have your son's numbers you can't "properly obsess" anyway, as someone else on this board once put it to me But it does sound curious! Last edited by chris1234; 06/17/09 06:54 AM. https://twitter.com/asimom, https://contributingfactor.wordpress.com

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? chris1234 #49529 06/17/09 08:35 AM
Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 921 J JJsMom OP Member
OP JJsMom Member J Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 921	Y'all have me so intrigued about all this!!! I wish I could afford to test DS (and DD for that matter) NOW! Ha! Either that or take the time off of work to do more research about this!

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? chris1234 #49533 06/17/09 09:36 AM
Joined: May 2007 Posts: 982 L Lori H. Member
Lori H. Member L Joined: May 2007 Posts: 982	I told my son's piano teacher about it and she thinks piano lessons might be the reason for this difference. The song he is working on for a recital has a lot more left hand activity than right. She said most of her kids who started lessons when they were older usually have more trouble doing the left hand than kids who started earlier like my son, who started lessons at 5 after a teacher recommended it to help improve his fine motor skills.

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? Lori H. #49790 06/22/09 06:17 AM
Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 921 J JJsMom OP Member
OP JJsMom Member J Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 921	Now there's an interesting thought as well... and it makes sense. I mean kids that start a second language early, learn it better, etc. So it would make sense that if you "programmed" your non-dominate hand to "work" from an early age, that you'd be able to use that non-dominate hand better than someone who didn't train with it at an early age.

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? lilglik #51429 07/29/09 12:11 AM
Joined: Jun 2009 Posts: 20 L lilglik Junior Member
lilglik Junior Member L Joined: Jun 2009 Posts: 20	I see that I posted my son 'just finished fourth grade'. I meant third grade...

Re: Dyslexic or Ambidextrous? Lori H. #69122 02/18/10 11:16 AM
Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 1,840 North Texas Austin Member
Austin Member Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 1,840 North Texas	Originally Posted by Lori H. My 11 year old son was ambidextrous in Kindergarten but we had him use his right hand only to practice writing. If he is holding something in his right hand while he is eating, he will use his left hand to eat. If he is using his right hand to move the mouse while on the computer, he will use his left hand to write. His handwriting is only a little better when he uses his right hand. When he is doing piano, he will occasionally play the left hand notes with his right hand. He occasionally rights 5's backwards and they look more like 2's. He sometimes writes P's backwards. But he started reading at 2 1/2 on his own and could always spell really well. If he sees a word, he usually remembers how it is spelled. We homeschool but I never really had to have him work on spelling because he was naturally good at it and he only worked on it the year he participated in the state spelling bee. Sounds like me. Being ambi means you can multi-task in a meaningful way!! In the 3rd grade a very mean and wicked teacher made me choose my handedness for writing. I still write some letters backwards with either hand. C and lowercase Q are my letters. My spelling is great except when I type too fast. Mr W was ambidextrous from the first time he grasped stuff. I've noticed that he will mimic which hand I use to eat when he eats. He carries stuff and scribbles with both hands. He tends to favor his left for balancy stuff like steadying himself. He is not dyslexic at all.

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