LEFT-HANDED CHILDREN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22833, 18 March 1936, Page 2

LEFT-HANDED CHILDREN

A COMPLEX PROBLEM PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EDUCATIONAL AND MEDICAL OPINIONS An educational and physical problem to which increasing attention has been directed in recent years—that of the lefthanded child—has been raised by a correspondent who, in writing to us, seeks information on the following points:— “ Could you inform me through your valuable columns the practice of competent educationists in regard to young children who are by instinct lefthanded: (1) Whether they should be permittted to write left-handed on commencing school. (2) If so, to what age, or when should the habit be broken? (3) What effects, if any, might interference with a natural inclination to write left-handed have upon the development and mentality of a child. (4) Are educationists generally in agreement in regard to the method that is followed, whatever that may be? ” The subject is one to which a good deal of research is being devoted at the present time, and it was with the object ot discovering the points of view of a number of persons qualified to express an opinion that a Daily Times reporter carried out inquiries this week. As a result of these it would seem that the problem offers further opportunities tor fruitful investigation. It is no doubt rather difficult to be left-handed in a right-handed world, and it is easy to understand that parents wish their children to grow up like other people. While careful and scientific treatment may be able to wean the child from left-hand use, it would seem highly desirable to remember that often it is best “to leave well alone.” ON THE INCREASE The opinion that left-hancfedness in the schools appeared to be on the increase was expressed by Mr J. M‘K. Miller, headmaster of the Normal School. The decision -whether a child was to be changed over rested to a certain extent on the parents, he said. Some said, “ Change the child over,” while others desired them to be left alone at all costs. Mr Miller considered left-handed children to be at a definite disadvantage, and, himself a left-hander who does everything but write with the left hand, he was very glad that he had been taught at school to use his right hand to the extent that he does. “ I have never noticed stammering resulting from a change-over,” he said. ' and i think that with kindly persuasion the letthanded writer can be changed over to the other hand without any ill-effect. DANGERS OF INTERFERENCE Mr B. J. Dunne, a speech teacher who specialises in the correcting of defective speech among children and others, and has studied the subject of left-handedness in relation to speech defects, is of the opinion that it is best to let the natural inclination take its course. When a child is using its left hand in preference to its right,’* he told a reporter, it is safer not to attempt to change it over. If. however, an endeavour is made to effect a change it must be done very gradually, and if there is any suggestion of an incipient stammer noticed the chilct must be at once changed back.” Asked whether he considered left-handed children to be under a handicap, Mr Dunne said that most of their disadvantages were more apparent than real. “It is only in writing that they have any difficulty,” he said, “for they have to push the pen instead of drawing it along smoothly as the right-hander does."

Mr Dunne was emphatic on the dangers oi changing over. It was found in a great many cases, he said, that w'hec persons were suffering from nervous disorders they should have been naturally left-handed and had probably been forced over at an early age. They thought they were right-handed when they were really left-handed, and from the early changing over there had resulted a state of nervous upset that had remained right through. “In fact.” he stated. “ip the case of most adult stammerers a test reveals that they are writing with the wrong hand. That is not necessarily the sole cause of their disorder, but it is at least one condition of it.”

COPING WITH THE PROBLEM Mr G. E. Overton, senior inspector of schools in Otago, said that from his experience he had found that the number of really left-handed children who came to the schools was small, but there were a good many—more than might be expected—who could be called ambidexterous. They could write almost equally well with both hands, and their dexterity with the left hand had arisen from their having been allowed to use that hand in early childhood, when they were really right-handed. “The Education Department has no definite plan for dealing with this problem,” he said, “ for it is one that must be attacked from the individual point of view. Each case must be considered on its merits. Our advice to teachers is to take the children in hand immediately and to encourage them to use their left hand. If, after some time, it is found that they are really left-handed they are allowed to remain as they are. Those whose left-handedness is habitual rathef than natural can generally be changed over without any ill-effects, although they must be taken very gradually, and I have never noticed any cases of stammering or other nervous disorders that might be attributed to that cause. It is sometimes necessary or desirable to obtain the advice of the school doctor, or, if practicable, the family doctor, before a decision is reached whether or not to change a child over from the left hand to the right. Most of the children who appear to be left-handed when they come to school are ambidexterous, however, and they can generally be changed over to the right hand without any harm resulting.” NO DISADVANTAGE Probably the person who has most to do with the question of left-handed children in the schools is the infant mistress, under whose pare the new arrivals are placed. Miss M. Ford, infant mistress at the Normal School, said that a very small percentage of the infants coming to the schools were really left-handed, although a good many were using the left hand. The problem confronting the infant mistress was to find which of these were left-handed by nature and which were using their left hands merely from habit. “ Children who are using their left hands when they start school,” said Miss Ford, “are taken in hand immediately and an effort is made to teach them ambidexterity as a first stage in the changing over to the right hand. If it is found that some do everything left-handedly, a condition that reveals a really left-handed turn of thought, they are allowed to remain so. A good many, however, are lefthanded only from habit as the result of having been neglected at home and allowed the spoon and other childish implements in the wrong hand. I have never forced a child to change over from the left to the right hand when it was obviously against all his inclinations, and, possibly for that reason, have never noticed stammering or other nervous disorders arising from a changing over.” “Do'you consider naturally left-handed children to be at a disadvantage? ” Miss Ford was asked. “No,” she replied. “To the right-handed person, of course, they look awkward, but I do not think they feel at nil awkward, and they ( have no difficulty in doing school work.” SOME INCONVENIENCES “In some callings young people who are left-handed are under a definite handicap,” said Mr T. Conly, the vocational guidance officer, when interviewed. “This is noticeable in office work, for in the first place they are seldom good writers, they leave telephone notebooks on the wrong side of the instrument, they twist ledgers and other office books in a manner that causes inconvenience to right-handed people, and generally display a clumsiness that prejudices employers against them.” Most machines were built for right-handers, Mr Conly added, and in shops left-handed persons appeared very clumsy when wrapping parcels. For this reason shop man-

agers did not look with favour on lefthanded boj's and girls. In engineering left-handedness was no disadvantage, and in some trades it was no handicap, but. generally speaking, there was a prejudice against the left-hander as an employee. Mr Conly stated that he knew of a case where a left-handed boy who was taken on in a shop was given three months to learn to write with his right hand or leave. He learned. NO CHANGE NECESSARY Miss Black, principal of Archerfield School, took the view that there was nothing to be gained from changing ovei a child to the right hand when she was naturally inclined to use the left. “We never change them over,” she said, “ and I do not consider that left-handed children are at any disadvantage in their school work. Even if requested to do so by parents we would not consider changing children from the left hand to the right.” Miss Black stated that there were only four left-handed children in the school out of a roll of 120. MEDICAL VIEWPOINTS The medical view, as outlined by authoritative local opinion, is more or less definite on the point of interference with a natural tendency to left-handedness. The interviewer was told that there should be no interference whatever with the natural inclination as it was liable to upset the child generally, causing nervousness and irritability. In addition it was inclined to precipitate stammering. In the case of an ambidexterous child, there could be no harm in trying to influence the subject to become right-handed, but if normal encouragement failed to correct persistent left-handedness, the child should be left alone. There was no reason why a left-handed child should not develop normally without any ill-effects whatever. Another opinion stressed the fact that writing and speaking were undoubtedly co-ordinated motor activities, and if one were interfered with there was a great probability of interfering with the other. Further such phenomena as right-handed-ness and left-handedness were not arbitrary or accidental but had _ causal connection with other facts in bodily constitution, a statement which had been notably confirmed by recent inquiries into the origin of squint, left-handedness and stammering by the Ophthalmic Depart ment of the Portsmouth and South Hants Eye and Ear Hospital. In a quotation from the summary of results of inquiries it was stated that the “ emotional difficulties of the left-handed child in meeting social demands have an importance which has, until now, been hidden from all save the psychologist.” PSYCHOLOGY’S ATTITUDE The psychological attitude to the problem was summarised very briefly in the psychology laboratory at the University of Otago, where the reporter was told that as there were many degrees of lefthandedness it was impossible to lay down hard and fast rules for dealing with it. The difficulty was that it was no isolated phenomenon but correlated with eyedness and footedness which made it necessary to consider each case in its yhole setting. It was pointed out that left-handednesa was not accidental. It tended to run in families and was fairly constant in all races and all periods of which there was any record. Investigations proved that it was about twice as common in men as in women. The attempt to make a child right-handed frequently had bad effects, among which was inclining it towards stammering. This could be due either to interference with the nervous system or to the mental reaction of the child to interference, or to both. The view was held by some authorities, especially on the Continent, that the association between stammering and left-handedness was largely fortuitous, and there was an inj elination to maintain the view held by Dr Alfred Adler, the psychologist, that -when a left-handed child was forced to be right-handed he resented the interference, and this strengthening of a social tendency brought about a stammer. It would appear, too, that a sense of inferiority might be engendered.