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Left to Right, Right to Left: The Switch is On

Anything Left-Handed Children & Teachers, Left handed life, Changing Handedness, Facts & Society
Children & Teachers Left handed life Changing Handedness Facts & Society

From our newsletter July 2024

Left to Right, Right to Left: The Switch is On - Clare Porac, PhD

Handedness switching is a topic of particular interest to left-handers. This is probably because, in the past, many were exposed to pressures to change their preferred hand from the left to the right. Fortunately, these pressures have dissipated in recent times and left-handers in most cultures are tolerated and even encouraged to remain using their preferred left hand. What does science say about the who, what, when and where of handedness switching?

Who is switched and who does the switching? Most often switch attempts are applied to left-handers. However, there are three groups of left-handers when it comes to conversion attempts. First, there are left-handers who are pressured and successfully shift their handedness from left to right. Second, there are left-handers who are pressured but resist the attempt and remain left-handed. Finally, there are left-handers who are never pressured to change their handedness. This third group has grown considerably as we have moved into the 21st century. Switch attempts applied to left-handers are most often initiated by third parties, such as teachers or parents. Some left-handers report that punitive measures are applied, such as slapping the left hand when it is used. Almost forgotten is the existence of right-handers who switch to the left hand. Right-handers tend to initiate conversion attempts on their own and the process is typically benign.

What is switched? Handedness is displayed during many one-handed activities. However, it is the writing hand that is most frequently targeted for rightward shifts among left-handers. Right-handers focus on changing handedness side for sporting activities, such as tennis, fencing, or golf. Although the shift attempt for the targeted behavior may be successful, other one-handed activities do not change and remain with the naturally preferred hand. A left-hander may successfully shift his or her writing hand to the right, but behaviors such as eating, brushing teeth, and combing hair continue to be completed with the left hand. The same is true for right-handers. The golf superstar, Phil Mickelson, plays golf with a left-sided stance, but he signs autographs for fans with his right hand.

When does the switch occur? Rightward conversions of the left hand usually occur in the pre-school or early school years. This makes sense since the behavior most frequently targeted for change is the writing hand of left-handers. In the past, teachers found it easier to teach writing if all students used the same hand, the right. Now, most teachers agree that allowing a left-hander to continue to write with the left hand aids in the achievement of full academic potential. Switch attempts occur at a later age for right-handers. Since these shifts are often related to sports activities, it may be a coach who encourages the use of the left hand. Recent research emphasizes the ability of adults to change handedness side. This may be necessary, for example, if the preferred hand is injured permanently or is amputated. Studies reveal that, with enough practice, adults can gain high levels of proficiency for many activities with their previously non-preferred hand. This is true even for cursive writing, one of the most difficult behaviors to switch from one hand to the other.

Where do switches occur? With a few exceptions, switch attempts applied to left-handers have diminished in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. However, in countries where there are religious restrictions applied to left-hand use, rightward conversion attempts may still occur. For example, in Muslim cultures, writing and eating are done with the right hand. The effect of contemporary switch attempts in certain areas of the world follows the pattern mentioned previously. The targeted behavior changes from left to right but other activities remain with the left hand. Right to left conversions have not been studied in a cultural context. Since they occur often for practical reasons or out of necessity, one can assume they are happening around the world.

A final word. One of the persistent myths related to handedness switching is the idea that it affects the brain in adverse ways. Switching handedness, regardless of how it is done, is not connected to stuttering or other language difficulties. Neural imaging studies of converted left-handers writing with their right hands show brain activity in the movement centers of both hemispheres but no indication of disruption in speech or language areas of the brain. Interviews with hundreds of left-handers, including the successfully converted among them, reveal they have adapted to the constraints of a right-sided world with little difficulty. Pressure on left-handers to change writing hand is disappearing in many countries, but, even when the left writing hand is successfully switched, left-handedness remains manifest in other one-handed activities. Recent studies indicate that handedness behaviors are flexible. A person can acquire skill with the non-preferred hand, either right or left, with enough practice and with no harmful side effects.

Clare Porac is Professor Emerita of Psychology and an Academy Professor at Penn State University in the United States. She has published extensively on topics related to laterality and handedness. Her most recent book is Laterality: Exploring the Enigma of Left-handedness. Her blog, In Your Hands, at sites.psu.edu/clarep offers monthly updates on the science of handedness and laterality.

 

You can see more on this topic by following the links below:

http://blog.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/being-lh/children/teaching/forced-change/

http://blog.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/being-lh/children/teaching/

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Comments 29

  1. Tom Wildy
    I am cross-lateral, left-handed and right-eyed.

    Over the years (I’m now 78) I’ve bumped, bored and banged my way through life.

    Is there anything I can do to reduce this clumsiness?
  2. Rob S. MacLeod
    Thanks for this article and all the other excellent LH content.
    I have always been strongly left-handed in activities that involve a single hand or leg. But what about sports like golf or hockey? I have seen many crossover cases here, including myself, so that I wonder if there is any association at all between a right/left swing and other left/right dominance.

    Any research out there on this topic?

    Thanks,
    Rob
  3. FaWaZ
    Hello,
    I enjoued reading the articale.
    I always felt unique as a Lefty, I was born and grew up in a Muslim Syrian family. I can recall that moment in kindergarten when my family noticed I am lefty I remember how my parents were excited about that. they showed me that right-hand option but NEVER forced me to use it. years later they encouraged me to eat by my right hand in a Muslim manner. but NEVER forced me for that as well. As Muslims, we believe being lefty is natural.

    I met some Lefties who are incapable of using the right hand in any activity which is wrong. Being a Lefty does not mean ignoring the right hand.

    For me, in writing, I use only the Left hand but in other activities, I use both of my hands. but yet the Left hand is preferable.

    best regards.
    Keep Left.
  4. V.Bharadwaj
    I was forced to switch to right hand for eating food in early childhood.

    The religious restrictions favour right handers in my country.
  5. Jean longley
    Both my stepson and I are left handed and most of the items in my kitchenwere either left handed or in a left handed direction. My right handed husband had a stroke which affected his right side because he had already semi adapted himself in my kitchen he was able to manage
  6. Linda Mary Rolls
    I had a very good primary school teacher who let me use the hand that I was comfortable using - left obviously.
    I have been 'right handed for 2 weeks in my life after having a brain tumour removed in 2000. It was an extremely strange situation and gradually after about 12 days my left hand gradually became more dominant again.
  7. Sauth Pa
    I consider myself to be left handed and have for my whole life so far. I play sports on my left and almost everything else I do, I use my left, but I don't write with my left hand. I was never told to switch hands. I always have used my right hand to write. This has bothered me a bit when I think about it from time to time. Does that mean that I am a right-hander who just happens to use their left a lot? I am proud to say I'm a lefty and it would be a big disappointment to me if that wasn't true.
  8. Jon Young
    This person doing the article and research doesn't talk about eye dominance for instance archery and guns these people are forced to switch if they want to pursue these sports
  9. Louise Littlefield
    My mother told me that she had not allowed me to use my preferred left hand when I began to feed myself. There are a few things I can only do left handed - threading a needle and using a screw driver. I can write left handed, but not well. My mother was very successful in her defeat of my left handedness. My father was switched in school (his left hand was tied behind his back) but he remained able to use either hand.
  10. Daun Korkow
    In most situations, I'm a lefty, & have never been influenced to do things right-handed. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that I do some things exclusively right-handed. I kick things, like a football or soccer ball with my right foot. I'm totally awkward with my left. Even more strangely to me, I discovered I throw overhanded with my left, and underhanded (like a frisbee) with my right.
    For over 20 years, I never even noticed this.
  11. Jeanette Mayhew
    Strangely enough, I deal cards with my right hand - never thought about this until playing Euchre. Several other players were also left handed and dealt the cards with their left hand!

    I would bat right handed and would play golf right handed, but throw a ball with my left hand

    I crochet left handed but finally learned to knit, right handed!

    I only had one substitute teacher try to get me to switch hands in writing
  12. Bruce K. Haddon
    Yes, knitting: of course, all left-handers learn a reasonable amount of doing things right-handed (of necessity), so being bi-lateral at some activities is not unusual for the left-handed person. As mentioned (Rose Walsh?) my mother (not having any daughters) started to teach me to knit, with the usual simple pattern of one row plain, then turn the knitting, and do one purl. I noticed that purl is just plain from the other side, so I would do plain in one direction (right-handed), and then without turning the piece, do plain again (left-handed) in the other direction. My mother never understood why that worked, and so ended my knitting lessons.
  13. Ross
    Very helpful - balanced and thorough, thank you.
  14. Jan
    Thank you for these studies which I found fascinating. My maternal grandfather was led-handed but forced to use his right hand. He was either hit with a ruler or had his left hand tied behind his back. As a result he became ambidextrous although favoured his left hand in most writing and had the most classic right-slanting almost copperplate writing. However, he suffered from anxiety from a very young age - you could blame the poor living conditions, deprivation and WWII. He also as a young man in his 20's developed both gastric and duodenal ulcers and it is widely believed ulcers can be triggered by anxiety. I firmly believe his forced handedness did have an impact on his health. I'm a total left-hander and proud to be so, and relieved that I have not suffered his fate of forced handedness. Even now it is sometime remarked upon 'ooh, you're left-handed!' and I confess seeing other left-handers write it can stand out! My writing, so am told, doesn't resemble what is considered to be left-handed writing, as I do not smudge my fountain pen or lean back the letters! I can also mirror write with ease which I believe is something left-handers find quite easy to do. Love being left-handed!!
  15. Rose Walsh
    I am left-handed. It was never suggested to me that I should change. I was lucky in that I went to primary school in the seventies, and my teacher provided instructions on how to adjust the writing instructions to my left hand. As an adult, I found myself looking left when the instruction was "look right." I know my left from my right so was very frustrated until I recently realized what I was doing. I translate every instruction for my left hand (mirror image). Most instruction (think sports, knitting) is given from right hand point of view so I was automatically doing this. Once I became aware of this internal process, it became easier to follow directions. My question is, do other left handers have this issue? How wide spread it this or am I the only one?
    1. Jan
      Yep, the same, my left vision/turning that way is dominant. As to knitting, my Mum was aware of the pattern challenge of 'reversing' a pattern and taught me to knit 'right-handed', although I still have to really concentrate and check I have the needles and wool the right way round before starting! As a result, I really don't enjoy knitting, but love to sew and craft instead.
  16. Terrence W. Walston
    I feel intuitively that the lady is right-handed, that would lead me to think that she has never been beaten and or locked in closets by her teachers for being right-handed. I am left-handed and will always be left-handed.
  17. Judith Hamilton
    At an early age I wrote with either hand, but my parents persuaded me to use my LEFT, because though my right-handed writing was neater, it was mirror-writing, written from right to left.

    Also, I've always wondered why some people claim that left-to-right script is somehow more 'natural' for a predominantly right-handed population, given the world dominance of right-to-left scripts.
  18. Ingrid
    My daughter and niece are both left-handed and recently published their first novel, "Gretchen Leary's School for Left-Handed Girls". You can read the prologue on Amazon. It is such a fun read, especially for lefties!
  19. Janet
    Interesting comment about teachers wanting students to write the same way. In third grade, when using cursive, my teacher went down the row and turned everyone's paper in the same way, meant for right handers. And so...I learned to write upside down. i still turn the paper sideways and write more or less straight up and down.. My father used the claw method. His mother was made to switch hands for writing but, like you say, continued to do other activities left-handed. Thanks for your articles.
  20. john
    i am 77 years old and when i was a child my right handed father tried to force me to write with my right hand, sometimes with painful force. he was old fashioned and somewhat superstitious and mocked me often for being a lefty. to make matters worse, i had a teacher in school who felt the same way and made her left handed students feel bad about themselves. my mother felt sorry for me and one day when my father was trying to "teach" me to write "properly" she suggested that he try to learn to write with his left hand to show me how easy it is to switch and then he could teach me his methods on switching. Of course he failed and he backed off a little bit and i wasn't subjected to painful lessons any more only an occasional comment on my writing upside down or writing like a cripple.
    1. Jan
      I'm a similar age to you John, and was made to stand the other way round in tennis instruction by a particularly nasty gym teacher - she couldn't abide her line of pupils all swinging their racquets in unison being disrupted by me a left-hander! And those blasted integral desks with a chair that could only be used by a right-hander!
  21. Judy Cooper
    When I was little (I am now 75), my parents would put a sock over my left hand to keep me from using it. I use my left hand to eat and write, but use my right hand to throw a ball, bowl or even bat. I tried to use my right hand to throw balls or bat, but just couldn't. I have adjusted to using all right handed utensils, etc. It's just a matter of which hand to use! If I use a hand operated can opener, I use my right hand. If I have to open a jar, I sometimes use either one (but mostly my left).
  22. Brian Ciesicki
    If you want to study a mass involuntary handedness change, consider the video game industry. Before 1984, most video games were ambidextrous, allowing you to choose your joystick hand by placing mirrored buttons on both sides. 90 percent of the American players chose a right handed joystick for 90 percent of the games that allowed a choice.

    Then in 1984 the Japanese gaming industry decided to make left hand sticks the standard, knowing this data, as a move to artificially shorted credit lengths and potentially make more money for the primary buyers of the games, the arcade owners.

    My website explains my experience as a right hander who became an "honorary lefty" finding my performance is enhanced with a right handed stick and bucking the trend of accepting a lefty stick.

    The website is SinisterSticks.com
  23. Kathleen
    I am a leftie I was never encouraged to switch. The teacher tried to straighten the writing books or paper but gave up in the end as I always put it slanted as this was comfortable to me.
  24. Bruce K. Haddon
    I have been in the computing field for over 50 years. When the mouse became a primary input device, I quite naturally set mine up for left-handed use. But later I was in a position of being employed assisting 100 chemical engineers, one-on-one, learning to program and use software tools. Switching their right-handed mice to left-handed to demonstrate various operations, and back again, became too time-consuming, awkward, and wasteful, so I switched my own mouse to right-handed, and learnt to use it. so I could demonstrate without reconfiguring their workstations. After about three years in that job, using a right-handed mouse became the normal mode, and now, thirty years later, eve on my own private computers, I still use a right-handed mouse--but use the touch-pad left-handed. But almost everything else, table knives, writing, cricket, etc. also remain completely left-handed. Tennis and squash (when I used to play) was bi-lateral, so difficult back-hand shots became easy forehands, and v.v. (and I could serve both ways--disconcerting to the other side!).
    p.s. Both my mother (a teacher) and my grandmother (a Victorian lady) attempted to have me change writing hands.
  25. ALEXANDRIA DYBALSKI
    When I was in kindergarten (I'm 76) the nun held my left hand behind my back and wanted me to write on the blackboard. I refused multiple times. The principal and my mother were both there and they came to the fact that I was destined to be a "lefty". Years past,had four children (both my husband and I are lefties). I just put the crayons on the table and let them pick them up with whatever hand they chose. Out of my four only 1 is a fellow"lefty". And now 1 out of five grand kids is a lefty. Love your article!
  26. Krystyna Rabin
    Very interesting. I am a lefty who was never forced to change( I am 75), however I did play tennis with my RHand and also some other activities. However, there are occasions when I can’t really decide which is the best hand to use and I believe that is why eg I am poor at sewing and not manually dextrous
  27. Kevin Singleton
    I do some things right-handed. Playing guitar, for instance. And, dribbling a basketball (I shoot left-handed, though). I could never switch, and I never wanted to. I like being different.

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