Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Ambidextrous and Gifted?

This discussion arose from another thread and I was wondering if it has any relevance among yourselves and your children.

DS7 is ambidextrous. I never thought it had much significance, except perhaps in slowing down the development of his fine motor skills. He started writing late at close to 5yo. Initially, he could write with both hands, but he gradually settled on the right. He eats with his left hand though, and when on the scooter, his dominant side is the left (pushes off on the right). We know he's ambidextrous also because it runs in the family.

In the last 12 months, we met with another 2 kids who are at the extreme end of the gifted spectrum (one is tested to be PG, the other is a strong candidate). Both are ambidextrous. I know one other child who is E/PG and not ambidextrous.

The coincidence is remarkable, but given that the sample size is tiny, I wonder about the broader incidence. Are any of you or your children ambidextrous? The other commonality is that, perhaps because of the ambidexterity, writing skills have been slow to develop (true in the three cases I know). This could be bogus science, but I'm really curious.

In a hopeless* attempt at balance :-) nobody in my family is ambidextrous (DH is strongly left handed, DS and I are right handed although not very strongly so).

*[I suppose, if we knew what percentage of the population self-identifies as ambidextrous, and how many active posters' children are represented on this board in total, we might have some chance of spotting how many it would take to be a surprising number of ambidextrous people in this thread...]

Our ds8 is ambidextrous, also writing with right hand and eating etc. with his left. I would say he is HG/EG

We have had concerns for him re dyslexia and some research says there is a relation between handedness, directionality and "wiring" differences - e.g., more crossover between left and right brain hemispheres.

He has managed to figure out spelling and reading mostly by memorization (bright guy!) but has retained his handedness, so there it is.

I was one of those children who desperately wanted to be left handed... so am vicariously enjoying ds's "differentness"

Hi, yes we have ambi people in our family, going back at least to one great grandfather. He was very athletic, used his lefty abilities to advantage in sports, also pretty smart but not sure about log.
I am ambi, HG, lefty for writing and righty for sports (large motor stuff, I guess).
Ds9 seems to be somewhat ambi, righty for writing but he is faster with his left hand on coordination tests. (MG)

I have found this a disadvantage when trying to learn left from right; he was slow with this as well, but no big deal.
Dd4 seems hardcore righty already; she is probably EG.

My PG brother wanted to write left handed and did so without difficulty but he was really a righty, not sure if that 'qualifies', he was/is just odd.

My EG husband is lefty-lefty-lefty! His PG sister is righty all the way, from what I know.

Thanks for starting the thread Blob. I will be curious on what data you collect.

I know my aunt is ambidextrous and can write with both hands but is truly left handed. I suspect that the era she grew up in is partly why she is able to write with both since they pushed for children to write right handed back then. I remember my grandmother saying that she never forced her to use her right hand and was glad she didn't when information came out about damage it does when children are forced to use their right hands but I still wonder if maybe while in school my aunt was pushed.

As for my daughter, she is left handed and from a very early age favored her left hand but now she is solidly left handed when she writes. When she eats she uses both hands, but leans more towards her left hand. I have caught myself on occasion reminding her to use her left hand but know it really is up to her and what is comfortable.

As for throwing and kicking she predominately uses her right side.

Now for the slowing them down in fine motor skills ... we haven't experiences this. DD has been writing letters since before she turned one and drawing about the same time too. We noticed early on that her fine motor skills were very advanced for her age. But again ... not 100% sure DD is ambidextrous. Right now I will say she leans that way.

more on this - mostly re dyslexia, but interesting!

http://books.google.com/books?id=7J...=handedness%20and%20dyslexia&f=false

oh, and fwiw, ds10 is determinedly right handed, but expresses his considerable intelligence in quite different ways from his ambidextrous brother.

Interesting feedback here. I don't think we can come out with any hard stats simply because, as CollinMum says, we don't have the parameters (total number of respondents vs total pool of forum members, not to mention that some may not have seen the thread at all). This is just for anecdotal sharing, and I must say there are quite a few interesting thoughts here.

Evidently, some ambidextrous kids have no difficulty wiring to both sides of the brain at all, contrary to what I thought. And I've always suspected my son was dyslexic although he's been cleared. But he still reverses letters, numbers, ideas even. Left to right, right to left, is the same to him. When he's alert, its alright. But when he's tired, he switches back into default, which is reversals.

Interesting, all this!

My daughter is left-handed and ambidextrous. I found this study (read the bottom for specifics) and it says that almost 50% of profoundly gifted are ambi.

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/What_is_Gifted/pg.htm