I’d give my right hand to be ambidextrous!

100 lefties!

YOU MAY BE MORE LEFT-HANDED THAN YOU THINK

We all, of course, know in which hand we hold a pen, but how far does this bias extend throughout your body? Are you left-eared? Left eyed? Here is a simple test you can apply to yourself.

Left Right

1. Imagine the centre of your back is itching. Which hand do you scratch it with?

2. Interlock your fingers. Which thumb is uppermost?

3. Imagine you are applauding. Start clapping your hands. Which hand is uppermost?

4. Wink at an imaginary friend straight in front of you. Which eye does the winking?

5. Put your hands behind your back, one holding the other. Which hand is doing the holding?

6. Someone in front of you is shouting but you cannot hear the words. Cup your ear to hear better. Which ear do you cup?

7. Count to three on your fingers, using the forefinger of the other hand. Which forefinger do you use?

8. Tilt your head over on to one shoulder. Which shoulder does it touch?

9. Fixate a small distant object with your eyes and point directly at it with your forefinger. Now close one eye. Now change eyes. Which eye was open when the fingertip remained in line with the small object? (When the other eye, the non-dominant one, is open and the dominant eye is closed, the finger will appear to move to one side of the object.)

10. Fold your arms. Which forearm is uppermost?

LEFT-HANDED LANGUAGE Left-handers have been linguistically abused for centuries! There are hundreds of (mainly abusive) terms for left-handers.There are a lot of sayings where "right" is good and "left" is bad e.g., "being in your right mind", "the divine right of kings", it will be all right in the end" as against being "left out", having "two left-feet", "a left-handed compliment" (one that is not really meant!).

Even the word for "left-handed" in many languages is very negative:

TRANSLATION FOR

LEFT-HANDED

Skaios

Mancini

Zurdo

Gauche

Linkshandig

Links, Linkisch

Kjevhendt

vänsterhänd

Mollie Dooker

canhoto

Sinister

Dexter

LANGUAGE

Greek

Italian

Spanish

French

Dutch

German

Norwegian

Swedish

Australia

Portuguese

Latin

MEANING

Ill-omened, awkward

Crooked, maimed

Reverse - No Ser Zurdo = Clever

Awkward, clumsy

To "have two left hands" means to be clumsy.

Awkward

Crooked-handed (also advised to us as keivhent, left-hander)

Something to do with having fists like a girl

On the left-hand side

On the right hand side (dextrous)

FASCINATING LEFT-HANDED FACTS Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right. There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed. Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handers (particularly if they are forced to change their writing hand as a child, like King of England George VI). Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.

Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing. Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers. 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed. 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed - 250% more than the normal level. Left-handers are generally more intelli-gent, better looking, imaginative and multi-talented than right-handers (based on discussions among members of the Left-Handers Club! :))

LEFT-HANDED CHILDREN Left-handed children have particular problems in learning basic skills using the wrong tools. These problems are easily overcome with some sensible guidance and use of simple left-handed implements, but they often get neither and end with an unfair reputation as being slow, awkward and clumsy as a result! Difficulties include: Cutting out simple shapes using scissors. Left-handed scissors have the blades reversed so that the child can the cutting line and so that the natural squeezing movement of the left hand pushes the blades together to make them cut rather than pushing them apart so that the card or paper gets stuck sideways inside the blades. Left-handers sometimes slip naturally into mirror-writing flowing from right to left and perfectly readable to them (or to anyone with a mirror). Famous examples of this were Leonardo da Vinci and Lewis Carroll. Left-handed writing requires a correct grip and correct paper positioning. If they are made to write like right-handers, but using their left hand, they often end up with a very cramped position and a "hook" wiring style that is painful and slow - not great for exams in later life! As children start to use ink pens, a left-handed nib cut-off in the correct direction is essential if they want to avoid a blotty mess.Even simple things like sharing a desk can be made complicated - always put the left-hander on the left-side of the shared desk or there will be clashing elbows and arguments all day.

LEFTY BRAIN-TEASERS Because their brains are organised differently, left-handers see and think differently and can get some very different results from various "brain tests", usually doing very well on tests that involve creative thinking or unraveling complex images and manipulating 3D images. Here's a famous test of creativity - have a look at the image below: A non-creative right handed brain sees only a hodgepodge of disconnected shapes, but the left-handed brain can go beyond logic and find the connecting concept that makes sense of the shapes. If you can't "see" beyond the shapes, it's because your right-handed brain is trying to solve the problem and won't let your left-handed brain have a go.

MORE LEFTY BRAIN-TEASERS THURSTON'S HAND TEST The left-handed brain's mastery of the visual has an important benefit - it can "see" three dimensionally. In Thurston's hand test, you are asked to identify which pictures are of left hands and which are of right hands. Your right-handed brain is at a loss to handle this problem, but your left-handed brain can actually rotate these drawings in imaginary space to solve the test - have a go! KANIZSA'S TRIANGLE Here's another example showing how your left-handed brain can even create things that don't exist. If you can see the white triangle - the one with its apex pointing up - it's because your left-handed brain has created that triangle to unify what is otherwise simply a collection of angles and PacMan shapes. There is, in fact, no white triangle there.

BEING LEFT-HANDED No-one has come up with a definitive reason for WHY some people are left-handed, but about 13% of the population around the world are, and it is thought to be genetic - it definitely runs in families. Researchers have recently located a gene they believe "makes it possible to have a left-handed child " so if you have that gene, one or more of your children may be left-handed, whereas without it, you will only have right-handers - sorry! The good news is, that if you are left-handed yourself, you have that gene and will pass it on through the generations! The way the brain works is incredibly complex, but this simplified explanation will give you some understanding of where our left-hand dominance comes from. The brain is "cross-wired" so that the left hemisphere controls the right handed side of the body and vice-versa and hand dominance is connected with brain dominance on the opposite side - which is why we say that only left-handers are in their right minds! The left hemisphere (RIGHT HAND CONTROL) controls Speech, Language, Writing, Logic, Mathematics, Science, this is the LINEAR THINKING MODE. The right hemisphere (LEFT HAND CONTROL) controls Music, Art, Creativity, Perception, Emotions,Genius, this is the HOLISTIC THINKING MODE. This brain dominance makes left-handers more likely than right-handers to be creative, and visual thinkers. This is supported by higher percentages of left-handers than normal in certain jobs and professions - music and the arts, media in general. Left-handers are also generally better at 3-dimensional perception and thinking, leading, for example, to more left-handed architects than normal. Left-handers are also usually pretty good at most ball sports and things involving hand-to-eye co-ordination.

The view that left-handers are clumsy and awkward is not down to their natural abilities, but being forced to use right-handed tools and machinery which is completely back-to-front for them.

How does being left-handed help or hinder? We asked whether there any ways in which being left-handed particularly helps or hinders you, and we got some great comments - here are some samples:

I think that I problem solve in my own kind of way - often people don't under-stand my thinking as it appears non logical - but to me it seems considered. OK its a right handed world but I LIKE BEING DIFFERENT.

Difficult at meetings and conferences - seating/table space assumes right handedness. Very few items of business equipment allow for left-handedness.

Signing credit card slips in on shop machines, using cheque books, smudging writing when using anything but a biro pen.

Hinders when I'm sitting next to a righty when eating.

If being left handed is what makes me so creative then that is a particular help. I think through growing up using right handed things you get used to it.

When using right handed scissors it leaves me with sore thumb and fingers sometime resulting in blisters.

All life is hard if you are left-handed.

I believe that all left-handers see and experience the world from a slightly altered perspective than a right-hander and this I take to be an advantage.

Believe being left-handed enables you to see the world in a different way to right-handers for some reason. Seem to be less conformist and able to see things from a different perspective. Amazed growing up - things that may have seemed so obvious to me - while rest of family (with exception of other left-handed members - father & brother) - could not see them at all. Makes one feel bit of an outsider with friends (majority right-handed).

Found it difficult - growing up - to find people to relate to on same level / similar wavelengths.

Dance, ice skating, tin-openers, anyone else's computer, writing desks attached to conference chairs, table settings - I often drink someone else's wine, many other things.It's always a conversation piece huh guys! They know we're better.

Helps: using a mouse and writing simultaneously (righties can't do that!).Helps - Playing racket sports (opponents seem to get confused).

As I am only 4 years old I am unable to answer these questions.

For my work I am able to visualise pipe layouts underground which helps me solve problems.