Are you a leftie? — Scope | Disability forum
Please read our updated community house rules and community guidelines.

Are you a leftie?

Adrian_Scope
Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team


The world isn't set up for the lefties among us, so every year International Lefthanders Day takes place to raise awareness of what makes southpaws unique and to give an insight into what left-handed life is like.

With the majority of equipment and tools designed with righthanders in mind, 10% of people are often pretty accustomed to having to make do.

However, making do won't always be an option for a left-handed disabled person. Obviously, there are left-handed aids out there, from ergonomic left-handed sticks to left-handed keyboards, but does your dominant left hand affect your daily life and how? Have you found useful any useful left-handed disability aids? Do you have any tips or hacks you would give to other lefthanders with your disability?

Community Manager
Scope

Comments

  • dolfrog
    dolfrog Community member Posts: 441 Pioneering
    Yes definitely, what some call right brain dominant, which is more about visual processing, and visual learning, we tend to try and understand the whole picture of why and how things happen.
    Recent research has been suggesting that those who may have problems using the left side of their brain processing auditory and sequential information can develop alternative compensating right side of brain visual skill and become left handed. All very complex lol.   
     
  • susan48
    susan48 Community member Posts: 2,221 Disability Gamechanger
    I’m a leftie too
  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team
    That's quite interesting @Hart86. Lots of my school friends were left-handed but they were never particularly discouraged from using their left hands, whereas my partner who's the same age as me had the opposite experience and she now writes with her left hand (but can do so very legibly with her right) and uses her right hand for pretty much everything else. Our youngest daughter (another leftie) has never been made to do anything with her right though.
    Community Manager
    Scope
  • pollyanna1052
    pollyanna1052 Community member Posts: 2,032 Disability Gamechanger
    I`m a leftie and it seems to bother other people more that it does me! The only thing that can be a problem is I can smudge writing if I`m not careful.
  • Tobias
    Tobias Posts: 46 Courageous
    I'm more leaning to conservative!
  • vikingqueen
    vikingqueen Scope Member Posts: 1,410 Disability Gamechanger
    How right you are @pollyanna1052 i wish i had  £1 for every time someone tells me that i am left handed.. :)
  • pollyanna1052
    pollyanna1052 Community member Posts: 2,032 Disability Gamechanger
    yeh,vikingqueen said:
    How right you are @pollyanna1052 i wish i had  £1 for every time someone tells me that i am left handed.. :)
     why is it such a surprise? People say `Oh you`re left handed!` As if it`s yet another disability. Perhaps we should start asking if we can get a benefit for it! LOL!!
  • Sam_Alumni
    Sam_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,671 Disability Gamechanger
    Is there a link between left handed parents and kids? That sounds odd but I have a couple of left handed friends and they both have left handed kids!
    Scope
    Senior online community officer
  • Sam_Alumni
    Sam_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,671 Disability Gamechanger
    I found this on www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk

    It also seems to run in families, although no gene for left-handedness has been isolated and it is not possible to predict left-handedness in the same way as, say, eye colour. What we do know is that the more left-handers you have in the family, the more chance of having left-handed children. The probabilities of various left-right parent combinations having a left-handed child vary quite a lot depending on which research you look at.
    Dr Chris McManus reported in his book Left Hand, Right Hand on a study he had done based on a review of scientific literature which showed parent handedness for 70,000 children. On average, the chances of two right-handed parents having a left-handed child were around 9% left-handed children, two left-handed parents around 26% and one left and one right-handed parent around 19%.
    In The Left-Handers Handbook, Diane Paul, repeated this and also noted that Left-handed mothers are more likely to have left-handed children than left-handed fathers.

    Scope
    Senior online community officer
  • dolfrog
    dolfrog Community member Posts: 441 Pioneering
    Sam_Scope said:
    Is there a link between left handed parents and kids? That sounds odd but I have a couple of left handed friends and they both have left handed kids!
    Recent research has been investigating why some of us may be left handed, which is about right brain dominance, and this could be a genetic issue, related to our various neurological strengths and weaknesses and how we are best able to work around them
  • Sam_Alumni
    Sam_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,671 Disability Gamechanger
    Also if you have left handed kids, you might like to look through www.lefthandedchildren.org

    "On this website you will find all the information and advice you'll need to help left-handed children from nursery right through their school days to overcome the annoyances and frustrations of living in a right-handed world. You'll find lots of ideas and resources specifically for left-handers, giving them the best techniques for adapting right-handed teaching and resources across the school curriculum. Armed with these techniques, left-handed children can learn new skills confidently and efficiently, without awkwardness or frustration, leaving them free to achieve their potential."
    Scope
    Senior online community officer
  • vikingqueen
    vikingqueen Scope Member Posts: 1,410 Disability Gamechanger
    My daughter is also left handed, but no one else in the family is. We have never encountered any difficulties.. God created a few perfect people, the rest will just  have to live with being right handed :p
  • pollyanna1052
    pollyanna1052 Community member Posts: 2,032 Disability Gamechanger
    my maternal gran was left handed, my mum wasnt, I am left handed, my daughter isnt and my granddaughter is! So it skipped a generation.
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    edited August 2019
    Not personally, though I've heard it said that most lefties are artistic, e.g. actors, artists, writers, etc. - I wonder if there's any correlation with this poll?
    My son is kind of a leftie- he writes left-handed and he uses his dinner knife in his left hand, but most other activities he does right-handed. So, partially ambidextrous?
    I don't think it has anything to do with genetics.
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team
    edited August 2019
    I`m a leftie and it seems to bother other people more that it does me! The only thing that can be a problem is I can smudge writing if I`m not careful.
    Despite having atrocious handwriting, I'm designated greeting card writer for this exact reason! It seems to be the thing my other half smudges more than anything else she writes.
    Community Manager
    Scope
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    I recall a girl at junior school who had the most beautiful handwriting. She was a leftie and used an Italic pen with a 'bent' nib and wrote with her exercise books almost upsidedown to prevent smudging.
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • deb74
    deb74 Community member Posts: 814 Pioneering
    My Grandad and my Dad were both left handed when they were kids but were made to right with their right hand at school and I think that could explain why I am ambidextrous! (came in useful a few years ago when I sprained my right wrist)

Brightness