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Stuttering and changed lefthanders

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After we wrote an article recently on the general effects that can result from forcing a natural left-hander to write right-handed, we were contacted by lots of Members about stuttering in particular and it is clearly something that causes people huge problems throughout their lives and we would like to highlight it further. You can see from the messages we have included below that, at least for those that contacted us:
  1. Their stuttering was directly connected to being forced to change writing hands at a young age
  2. It had a dramatic negative effect on them, often lasting their whole lives
  3. In some case at least, once they changed back to writing left-handed their stuttering stopped
Now this is only anecdotal evidence but it is pretty clear! There has been research over the years that has found the percentage of stutterers who are left handed is much higher than the general population but that was not specifically linked to forced hand change (and would depend whether the people who had been changed were still classed as "left-handers" in the research!). There was also one piece of research as far back as 1940 that actually indicated that lefthanders were LESS likely to be stutterers (but again definitions can cause a problem as the lefthanders who were   forced to change and then stuttered may well have been counted as right-handers!). We have not been able to find any solid research about this and on the Stamma (British Stammering Association website) it is not mentioned apart from very briefly in a couple of contributed articles, again with no actual research background.   We found an interesting article on the subject here where the author noted:
  • About 1% of the human population stutters, more males than females.
  • Many studies have both empirically and observationally demonstrated a link between left-handedness and stuttering (the one referenced is "Bryngelson, B., & Clark, T. (1933). Left-handedness and stuttering Journal of Heredity, 24, 387-390")
  • And that as the incidence of left-handers being forced to change in recent years has been reducing, we would expect to see a reduction in the total percentage of stutters, but that does not seem to have happened.
We have since come across a short research review showing how the theory connecting forced hand change and stuttering has become more and less accepted over the years: Retraining left-handers and the aetiology of stuttering: the rise and fall of an intriguing theory It is clear that there are many causes of stuttering and it does seem to be at least partly genetic and has been shown to run in families.   Given the high number of people it affects, the proportion of them who have changed handedness as a definite cause is going to be very small, but from what people tell us, it can be a very traumatic and lifelong problem that, in these cases, could have been avoided by just leaving the left-hander to develop naturally!

We would be very interested to hear more of your personal experiences and also find out if there has been any more research conducted into this that we have not been able to find. Please add any thoughts as comments at the bottom of this article.

Related material

Messages we have received specifically about stuttering

  • In the first grade, our teacher wanted us (two leftys) to switch to the right hand, I refused and would not do it, My friend agreed and in a very short time started to stutter, 2 years later, a visiting education PHD from the US, sat in our class, my former lefty friend was asked a question by the guest and his stuttering got worse because of his nervousness, The visitor inquired if he always stuttered and was told that it happened in the first grade, he further asked if the kid used to be left handed and the teacher proudly said that she had cured” his left handed problem. Our guest then told her to make sure to make the boy write with his LEFT HAND His stuttering was gone in a few weeks.
  • My teacher wanted me to write right handed. She taped my paper to the desk and made me write with my right hand. I began to stutter and my father was on me all the time to stop. I was grounded and humiliated by my father. I finally told him what the teacher was doing with my paper to get me to write right-handed. My father went to the school and told the teacher to leave me alone and let me write with the hand I wanted to write with. My stuttering stopped.
  • I was born left handed along with my 2 brothers and my sister. They are all still left handed and I was switched in school unlike the others.  I also had to take speech class in school for stuttering.  What are other affects of switching hands?   Molly S
  • I think there is a link between switching from left to right hand, and stuttering, but I think that it takes a "trigger" to set off the stuttering. I was naturally left handed, but had it beaten out of me in school (age 4-5 on). All was fairly normal until, age 12, I had 4 teeth extracted under a general anesthetic. The very minute they woke me from the operation I could not talk, and suffered from stuttering for the subsequent 20 years (like many stutterers I now have it under control). I think forcibly switching from left to right hand sets the scene for stuttering - a traumatic event can then set it off. Just my opinion, but I have had 30+ years to try to analyze the sequence of events.
  • At the earliest signs of being left-handed my mother trained me to be right-handed. I think this may have hindered my verbal and social abilities, as I've always been extremely shy and unable to express anger properly - I used to stutter as a child when I was angry.   I'm still not good at expressing myself verbally, thoughts are easier to communicate on paper for me, and my social skills are still lagging behind others.   I excelled in school, math and science, and sports; ventures that require a lot of competition but not communication. I began college with a football scholarship and majored in physics but quit school after two years, probably due to a lack of social skills that caused me to abuse alcohol and other drugs.   I finally cleaned my life up and at age 30 earned my college degree in philosophy with a heavy emphasis on psychology, and then attempted law school, but I still don't have the social skills necessary for the profession, so I'm working in the telecommunications construction industry, climbing towers, installing lines and antennas for cell phone carriers.   I believe having been switched from my natural left-handedness to being right-handed has had negative side effects, and I highly discourage the practice. Joel R
  • As the class clown, I was devilish, but those nuns had it in for me and were determined to make me ‘right’… no matter the cost. In this case, of course, it was the horrendous stuttering problem that emerged. No one could figure that one out. Not the expensive therapist, not even me. I just remember beginning to stutter. Now… nothing is worse than a stuttering child, especially if they are Math-oriented and can quickly produce the right answers.So I was greeted with a chorus of laughter every time I stammered or blocked. So finally, I decided to ‘make ‘em laugh’ ….at least I’d be in on the joke, and I developed my weird interpretations and free-flowing, goofy impressions of cartoon characters, which, by the way, most nuns and later teachers were greatly entertained. I didn’t stutter when I mimicked Goofy” or Mickey” or, my favorite, Bullwinkle.” Nevertheless, when I began to give into this burbling to the top of this latent lefthandedness the stuttering began to quieten down. Here I am at sixty and I finally have conquered stuttering and am able to do EVERYTHING left-handed… if I want. Ted L
  • I write right-handed now but can recall my mother snatching pencils out of my left hand and saying, "No! We write with our RIGHT--see? That rhymes. Use your right hand!"   I remember it feeling weird, but I did as I was told. I've suffered anxiety and bouts of clinical depression my whole life and until reading your articles about it never thought it could all go back to being left-converted. Wow. As a child I did not stutter, but as an adult I find speaking very difficult. I can write well and easily express what I want to say in writing....but I search for words when speaking and get all tongue-tied. I'm very introverted and soooo socially awkward. I can see a connection, for myself, between the studied effects and my own conversion to writing right-handed. Definitely. Tonya
  • I am now in my 70's but well remember being treated with contempt at school because I was left handed. I was forced to write with my right hand and finished up with a stutter. David R
  • When I was in infant school and learning to write I was made to write right handedly. I developed a stutter and became distressed by this. When my mother discovered what was happening, she went to the school to complain and insist that I should be allowed to write with my left hand. The school complied with this and my stutter vanished. Polly O
  • I had never thought about my ‘affliction’ because I was one of the lucky ones who had been changed via a harness, when in the first grades to the acceptable right-handed scholar… this in a religious-oriented school, btw.” So……..I then developed a massive stutter that, for all intents and purposes, changed my life forever… specifically my interactions with other students and friends who now viewed me as somewhat defective. Of course that was the simple version: The real tragedy related to my entire communicative life — It was very disturbing for me to speak with those necessary in my profession in order to pitch ideas BECAUSE of the stuttering caused by the mechanical change to righthandedness. For almost twenty-five years, I stuttered heavily, so heavily people would turn their heads and look in other directions when I spoke or attempted to speak. More than one job was lost because I just could not effectively communicate the ideas so streaming through my head in a coherent fashion, one understandable to others. I was so embarassed by this as a young boy when I attempted to speak to a girl. The first girl I fell in love with who remains the ove of my life (her name was Gail”), was listening to a joke her mother had made when she answered my call and when I was trying to say ‘Hello’ to her, stammering and hung-up on the H,” a difficult letter to enunciate, I thought she was laughing at my stuttering, and although she apologized profusely as I continued to attempt speaking, I relived that moment for eons. All of this caused by someone determining that I should be a right hander in order to be Right” for society. After I began noticing that my left hand could do some pretty amazing things when I was thirty-nine, I tried to use it and found that my stuttering diminished. Scary. I now speak well, no stuttering. But my life was changed forever by this force-change to an acceptable right handed personage.
  • I cant begin to tell you the problems I’ve had being a leftie. Teachers at school persisted in trying to make me write right and caused me to stammer which I still do now.

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Comments 53

  1. Sandra Pember
    Hi, I've just come across this page ! I'm a lifelong stammerer !
    I'm 80 years old in a few months time .
    When I was four years old I started school and was left handed . My recollections are very clear even to this day, unfortunately .
    It was a small church school in Bussage , a little village near Stroud in Gloucestershire . The teacher was a Miss Burgope . She was very strict and made me stand in the corner of the classroom most days with a dunces hat on because I wanted to write left handed . She would also rap me on my knuckles with a wooden ruler if she saw me using my left hand . I spent a long time in the corner of that classroom .
    I did eventually write with my left hand , and still do today ......... but, I've spent from then until now with a stammer .......76 YEARS !
    Hindsight is a wonderful thing , and teachers would not get away with such treatment to children these days , but parents, doctors etc weren't aware of these problems which resulted for children like me in those days.
    Yes, I've been to speech therapy many times over the years .
    Getting a job was always difficult ...... I wanted to go into the RAF after leaving school , but was rejected BECAUSE of my stammer . Making and keeping friends was difficult , but I did marry and had two children . The problem of getting a job was still problematic so I eventually became self employed as I'd taught myself to repair antique clocks ! I worked from home and was pretty successful , repairing very expensive clocks for Gloucester City council , Cheltenham Hospital and The magnificent clock in the Judges Room of Shire Hall , Gloucester ....... besides hundreds of clocks for the general public . Then my husband died very suddenly and I was left to cope alone again .
    Yes, I've had some challenging times , lost the love of my life, but have been a champion for disability rights but haven't been successful with ridding myself of this dreadful stammer . I still hate phones but am very pleased with texts and emails, they help me to cope on a daily basis .
    I cannot forgive that Miss Burgope for what she did to me , it was so cruel .
  2. Susan Ross
    I was forced to write with my right hand when I started school in 1952. I also started to stutte, I was so upset as my writing was bad and was getting told off for that too. When my Father found out he told the school to leave me to write left handed. The stutter did ease off. But even at 73 I still stutter when overtired, ill or stressed.
  3. Terri Neumann
    I have recently come to terms with this I was left hand dominate, actually I had not decided which was stronger. my kindergarten teacher said to my mom in some cases I used my left hand more than my right. she did not really didn't think anything about it. So the teacher took it upon herself to decide that I was going to be right handed. my mom thought nothing about it but did express that she thought that I should have been left handed but didn't pursue it. I am 46 right now and I feel that the things that have been said fit me down to the letter. it is beyond a relief that I am not as stupid as all the teacher all the way through k-12 told me I was.
  4. jack ballschmider
    I was forced by the nun's with a ruler, yardstick, or pointer to write with my non dominant hand. My father made me do what the nun's wanted, my sisters told me it didn't matter and/or that i was ambidextrous so it didn't matter. I started writing / drawing with my left hand about 7 years ago,( 50 years after being forced) sisters are still saying the same thing. I've never done enough right handed to think i was ambidextrous. I am an architect, and have been writing / drawing with the non dominant hand my whole adult life. i have been trying desperately to go back to lefty, because i think i am more creative, but the whole writing thing brings back a lot of unconscious fear. i have included some drawings in photos, not that they are anything great but i really didn't draw in 3-d or sketch much at all when right handed.
    could use some support from friends/ family. They say to go back is yet another form of brainwashing.
  5. FP
    I fell out of a tree at age 6 and broke my right wrist. I switched to writing with my left hand and never went back, had a huge stuttering problem until mid 20s, but can still not tell my right from left!
  6. Keith Spurgin
    Hello, thank you for this. My stuttering and left-handedness story goes like this:
    I was adopted at the age of 18 months, used my left hand as the dominant including reversing knives and forks. I was made to write right-handed and the results were very scrawly. I also stuttered and was very clumsy and (Dad said) 'ham-fisted'.
    Playing games I could kick, throw and catch with both sides, better on the left, and threw darts and played snooker equally well (actually badly) with both sides. But my co-ordination was very poor and I have no dancing ability.
    I believe that years of reading aloud helped with stuttering and it's now rare. When delivering lines I sometimes have difficulty but I'm a fluent impromptu speaker.
    After contacting my birth family and spending much time with them I have had the extraordinary experience of becoming a very accurate thrower and catcher. In addition my handwriting is neat and stylish and I can write well with my left hand provided it is mirror-writing.
    Did this happen because of my life history or did I learn to overcome genetic conditions - nature or nurture?
    I still can't dance.
    Thank you for the opportunity to contribution and keep up the good work.
  7. sidali
    if you think you're a converted lefty try using your left hand again ... it feels great ... it's like your mind is clearer and there is no need to stutter o.O
  8. Dr Billy Levin
    If being a leftie, is right brain dominance (doing side) and left brain (language side) immaturity there is a natural tendency to have some form of language dysfunction often manifesting an a stutter.The stutter is worse under tension.
  9. Sara
    Well I had stutter as a kid.Now I'm almost 16 years old.My stutter has disappeared one year ago.I started to speak fluently.But it came again. But not like 'stutter'. It's more like a fear of 'stuttering'.I have a fear of speaking in public,speaking in front of my class,even parents...I'm honest with my parents ,and they told me that it'd completely dissappear and that I'm only in that teenage phase when I'm sensitive about everything.And I was left handed too. Has someone the same problem as me?
  10. Nils
    When I started school, my teacher and my parents adviced me to write with the right hand, though I was naturally left-handed, and who was I to argue ...
    Over the years I developed a kind of double-handedness, using the left hand for drawing and painting and the right for writing. Being a pianist, this double-handedness became quite useful and in most situations I can easily move from one hand to the other.
    However, I also began to stutter a bit, and it has become slightly worse lately, though I usually manage to hide or go around it. 
    1. Dr Billy Levin
      An ADHD student broke his right arm in soccer and was advised to use his left hand until the plaster was removed. He used his left hand and his writing was better than ever. When the plaster was removed he refused to use his right hand. He was born left handed but forced by ignorant teachers to change to right hand.
  11. Vincent Tsebewu
    There is hope Julie,Search for Ruth Mead's book titled 'Speech is a river - my recovery from stuttering' . Just google it up and download a pdf version of it.Good luck
  12. Vincent Tsebewu
    I was forced to change from left handedness to right in school when i started writing and i have stuttered all my life. I am now 38 years. I still stutter but i have hope of recovering from it by three months time. I am however not sure whether i need to switch back to left hand before i can recover from the stuttering.Vincent
    1. khaled
      I have a similar case. Any advice to overcome stuttering?
  13. hufeiya
    Hi,I come from China.I never use my right hand for anthing except writting because I was forced to do this when six.Then I began to stutter,even I'm 21 now.I try anything I can to overcome stutter such as making speeches on bus or underground but haven't succeed.Of cause it's very hard to me to do this but I have to.
    Is it real that If I switch to my right hand for writting then the stutter could be cured ?
  14. Brodie
    I've always been left handed..as a child I didn't use my right hand for anything..everything was my left hand.
    When I was 10 I seriously injured my left hand and was not able to use it for anything until I was 19!
    This made life very difficult.. I felt like a child again having to try and relearn how to do basic everyday tasks with my right hand.
    Having being able to use my left hand again the past few months I have found this website extremely helpful in tips and things to use (ie pens, scissors, kitchen utensils etc)
    It was impossible for me to learn how to write with my right hand..I tried for 9 years and i could never do it..my hand would shake when I tried to write. When I was in school and I was forced to use my right hand..no matter how messy my writing was I developed a stutter which was a shocking surprise!
    Since being able to use my left hand again my stutter has gone and I can write easily.

    It's weird using my right hand..left handed all the way!!!
  15. Eero Toivakka
    At the age of 6, one day before I started elementary school, I broke my right arm, hence I was forced to learn writing with my left hand. That made me stammer quite badly. I can't remember much of the time (this happened in the late 60's), but I remember that some 2 years later I was forced to change back to right handedness. Stammering disappeared, but my articulation never recovered completely to the level it was before my left handedness period. Consequences of this forced left handedness and stammering were life long fear of speaking among many people and terrible hand writing after I changed back to right hand. Also amusing detail is that I learned to play ice-hockey during my left handed period. I shoot from right side, which is common for left handed people in Europe (for some reason in USA it is the opposite, it more common for lefties to shoot from left hand side).
  16. laura sharpe
    I was ambidextrous, still am to a certain extent. At four to five years old, i was settling on the left hand. No one made me switch, instead, at every big dinner, it was mentioned I was left handed and I had to sit here or there. Left handed items were purchased etc.

    In kindergarden, the teachers aide would rush off to get me left handed scissor when the right handed ones would give me troubles....none the less the ambidexterity continued and I had a hard time learning left from right or consistently using a single hand. I learned to look around to see what hand everyone else was using and use that hand. I recall doing this in class for a few years.

    I developed a studder in 3rd grade when my right handedness was finally fixed in my practices. I lost the studder a few years later. No idea why.

    Many times when I learn new skills over the years, such as batting in baseball and shooting pool, I would naturally choose the left handed approach to it and switch to right handed later.

    I am out of touch doing most things left handed but I am much better at switching hands than most people.
  17. Walter O'Hearn
    Now 70 years old, I remember vividly that my first grade teacher, Miss Sullivan, (terrible teacher in many respects) attempted to make me use my right hand to write. That was when I began to stutter. Actually I have a speech hesitation, more than a stutter. When my father (normally a very laid back and quiet person) found out what she was trying to do, he went directly to the school and confronted her and made sure she was aware that if she continued to do what she was doing, he would have her job. Unfortunately the damage was done. My speech problem continued thru elementary school and then into parochial high school where the nuns felt that I should be called on more than anybody and that would help my "affliction". It did not. As I got older, I was able to compensate in many areas and although it bothered my mentally and socially for a long time I eventually overcame the most issues and carried on with a successful career. I am pretty much over the problem although every once in a while it rears its ugly head for no apparent reason and I deal with it. I am truly left-handed as I do everything left handed except use scissors for obvious reasons.
  18. Donna de Caires-Glenn
    Like many before me I too had a teacher in infant school who thought it was her duty to make me right-handed.I still write with my left hand. Interestingly enough, left handedness runs on both the maternal & paternal side of the family. I've read where stuttering may be a result of trying to change someone from left to right.

    I also stutter and have found it has worsened as I got older. It wasn't so noticeable during my teen years. During my high school years I was in the choir and stuttering was never an issue. I now find myself having to overcompensate, changing the original word I am struggling to say with something similar.

    Any suggestions?
  19. Jane Binkoff
    I am a lefty-righty. I was never forced to change and was allowed to develop as I wished. However, I can only perform tasks where precision is required (writing, using scissors, crocheting, etc) with my left hand and I can only perform tasks where strength is required (sports, using a carving knife, etc) with my right hand. At times, I have tried to change (for instance, I catch a ball only with my right hand and throw a ball only with my right hand, which made playing first base a problem!).
  20. Lee from Australia
    Oh, one more thing: I work with an organisation that deals with children, teens & adults with ADD/ADHD. While leading a discussion group in the Adult Support Group, I informally asked who (out of the 15 or so people there) were left-handed; around 8-10 people were. This is an extremely high proportion compared to the general population - over half to 2/3 vs. 12-15%. Does anyone know of any studies or papers regarding a correlation between having ADD/ADHD and being left-handed?
  21. Lee from Australia
    I remember being told that my uncle Murray (on my father's side) had been forcibly changed from left to right handedness in school, and that he stuttered from then on. Neither my Mother, Father or Brother were left-handed but I was. Thankfully, I was not forced to change, but in Year 6, a [well known] horrible teacher complained about my 'messy' handwriting. Moreover, when she was tasked with teaching the girls in class how to knit (don't ask me why) she routinely embarrassed me in front of the class by making a big deal about having to teach me in the mirror; what an annoyance it was, how difficult I was, etc. (I was the only girl lefty)
    It's strange, you know: We are about 15% of the population, which is more than some 'racial' groups, or religions in some parts of the world: While they don't [still] kill us, we certainly have a tough row to hoe with many things we're expected to do. SO many things are made specifically for ease of right-handers, to the discomfort and frustration of us left-handers!
    1. Duncan
      Can I ask when it was that you developed the stammer during your story above?
  22. PeterF
    I'm left handed and used to stutter/stammer (is there a difference). Anyway I had speech therapy as a child from about 7 -10 years of age and my stuttering stopped. I remember much of the therapy was about relaxation, I think my brain seems to run to fast I find even now at times when writing I start writing the next word that's in my brain before I have completed or even started the word I should be writing. Could there be a connection here with how the left hander's brain works? I also used to on occasion as a child do the classic mirror writing. The other thing I did was to spend most of my working life as a commercial artist. Art being a thing that lefties seen to be good at.
  23. Vikrant
    Start learning/teaching Sanskrit to anyone suffering from it. I read somewhere that it helps. I don't have stuttering problems but have difficulty understanding language,socializing,introvertness etc.. I am starting to learn Sanskrit in few days. Hope it helps. If it works and i hope it works, i would let you all know.
  24. S latters
    All of these stories are awful and have been caused by a negative old fashioned attitude to hand preference. My grandmother tried to change me to right handed, by schooling me in writing when I was in her care. As soon as my Mother became aware she ended this and i had no negative effects. Ironically she was naturally left handed but had been made to be write with her right hand by family. Hopefully in time, theidea of changing handednes will lessen as things have improved with the availability of products and a more modern attitude.
  25. William Devlin
    In 1942 at the age of seven I fell and broke my left arm in three places. It was determined (wrongly) that my arm was damaged to the extent I would never have the proper use of it again. I was forced to make the change to being right-handed. At some later time I developed a serious stuttering problem that affected me seriously,both socially and professionally. The problem lasted for more than 20 years. Although I seem to have overcome the problem to a great degree there are still situations I will avoid. My worst situation is where I am in a room full of strangers and we are asked to introduce ourselves. I have even left the meeting to avoid the horrible fear of embarrassment. I was close to getting a college degree but abandoned it because completing it involved being placed in some embarrassing situations.
  26. Yolanda Muñoz
    My name is Yolanda Muñoz and I now live in Puerto Rico. As a child, at the age of 5, I attended kindergarten, that was in 1957. I was inclined towards art and I painted with my left hand. That is as far as I can recall using my left hand since I did not write at the time. Soon after, at age 6, I began first grade in a catholic school in New York. I was not permitted to use my left hand so I had to put that hand under my left thigh and begin to learn to write with my right hand. I was punished if I used my left hand by tying it to the back of my chair. My Mother, a leftie at birth but also forced to use her right, was not aware of my frustrations and needs as a leftie. During the first grade I was forced to use my right hand at school while at home I ate and did my drawings with my left hand. I also spoke in English at school and Spanish at home. As far as I can recall, I did not stutter in either situation though I was timid at school. Beginning my second grade, I fell and fractured my right clavicle. Due to the seriousness of the fracture I was out of school for about a month and a half. When I went back, I was still in my gesso vest and unable to use my right hand. I was not permitted to continue my education until I was able to use my right hand! Yes, the school left me out for almost the entire semester. Later on, I continued to use my right hand in almost everything I did in fear of punishment or being left behind.
    Now I am 60 years old and since about two years ago, almost unconsciously, I began using my left hand to eat, wash dishes, cook, drive, clean and do other chores. I still write and paint with my right hand though I can write with both. My neurologist made a simple exercise to see what was my dominate hand and it turns out that it is my left.
    My son and niece are lefties. I made it a point that the school respected his dominant hand. I am still intrigued about all this that has happened to me. Please let me know if my case can help in any way.
    Yours truly,
    Yolanda Muñoz
  27. Steve Tillcock
    My father stuttered and although it was not a problem I did take more notice of it in later life. He was right-handed and I am the only leftie in my entire family as far as I know. I have stuttered occasionally but attribute this to aging and the overflowing memory syndrome. Watching movies and television I notice more and more characters being depicted as left handed. It is universal and has nothing to with religion. A gifted mind has no reason to be ashamed of its implements.
  28. Sarah Ellison
    Hello there,
    Although I'm not left handed, I'm a Speech and Language Therapist who specialises in stammering in adults and older teenagers - so I've been extremely interested in your article on the link between left handedness and stammering.

    You're right, there isn't much research out there about the subject. However, I think it's like everything else - that each person is an individual and so what one person experiences doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will. There's clearly lots of examples here of people who were forced to use their left hand and subsequently experienced stammering (even King George VI, as mentioned in the amazing and award-winning film The King's Speech) but this isn't the case with everyone.

    Stammering is a very complex communication difficulty with a great many things contributing towards it - different things for each individual. For instance, stammering is 4 times as common in males than females and it can often appear to have a genetic element too. The person's personality and the environment in which they live and learn/work all contribute greatly to how a stammer presents and how indeed the person copes with it.

    Although the latest research shows that a stammer is much more likely to persist if it's been happening for more than 2 years or if the child is beyond the age of 6, there's still a great many things that can be done to deal with a stammer - and more importantly, to deal with the often very negative thoughts and feelings that go with it. One of the main forms of treatment I personally offer for stammering in adults and older teenagers is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) which is really effective for dealing in particular with the negative thoughts and feelings - the bits that remain under the surface but that lead to poor self-esteem, poor self-confidence and avoidance of words and situations. If you wish, you can read more about NLP on my website (www.profluence.co.uk) and I would encourage you to dip your toe into the wonderful world of NLP whenever you get the opportunity in whatever part of the country (or the world!) you live in.

    Thank-you for a brilliant and interesting article and thread.

    Sarah Ellison x
  29. Jay
    I was lucky with the stuttering issue. My dad was studying speach therapy at the University of Washington in 1946-47 and even then the link between forcing a lefty to use their right hand and stuttering was well documented. It was an issue he had no problem dealing with in my early years.
    Thanks for posting.
  30. Barbara
    I'm 61 now and wasn't forced to write right handed at school but my father used to beat me if I used my left hand at home. I developed a stammer and this caused more beatings. He also had a great line in emotional abuse, still has, and he's 93 now. A few years ago he said that he's always believed that left handed people are lazy and stupid! I'm my parents' carer now and I just don't bother to answer him. I know I've got him to 'thank' for a lot of my problems so maybe I am stupid for caring for him!
  31. Sue
    My father, born in 1923, is left handed. At school they tied his left hand behind his back to force him to write with his right hand. This caused him to stutter. When he left school at 14, he reverted to his left hand, and the stuttering stopped.
  32. DARRELL CATT
    had uncle they made write with his right hand....reason being they thought lefthandedness was sign of the devil....
    maybe they should read thier bible...Judges 20:16
    Out of all these people 700 choice men were left-handed; each one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
    i always say...WERE GODS CHOSEN!!!
  33. Gary
    Born in 1953, I do not recall being forced to write right handed in school. I know that I was asked to try writing and to draw right handed. But always went back to writing and drawing left handed. I did have a stuttering problem. In grade school I dd, for a short time, take a speech class. There was one other student in there with me. A girl my age and in the same grade. She was also a stutter and left handed. The class I remembered didn't last a long time. I stilled stuttered the same afterwards. After reading others comments on stuttering, it brought memories and I recalled that in playing sports, especially baseball, it was hard to play. We only had right handed gloves. I could field and catch the ball when hit to me, but, I would have to take the glove off my left hand, grab the ball with my left hand and then throw it in. This took an extra few seconds and I do remember being ridiculed for this by my team members. With playing golf, I had to use right handed clubs and this was awkward and had some things said to me as well. What I am getting at here, is that, it does start in school when learning to write, but does go into other fields as well, such as sports. I stuttered most of my life, I was nervous a lot and didn't have self esteem and always felt inadequate. It did affect me as an adult. I have over come most of the stuttering now and the other affects from stuttering, but when put in a situation where I get nervous, the stuttering comes back. It has affected my jobs and have had comments made about it. Which can be and is frustrating. Over all, I look back and realize that being left handed was and is not a handicap. Though it was made to look like one. I do enjoy being left handed. I have a daughter that is left handed. I worked with her when she was younger and always told her that being left handed is not a handicap and not to let other people make it seem so. She is doing well and is very talented. I hope we can learn from the experiences older left handers have gone through and that it can be shown that the best thing anyone can do for a left handed person is to let them be left handed.
  34. Dale
    I am left handed. My mean first grade teacher hated the fact I wrote Left-handed. As a result everytime she walked past me during my work, she smacked my left hand jerked the pencil out of my hand placed it in my right hand and would say Now do your work! Naturaly a few minutes later the pencil went right back to my left hand and the smacking started all over. As a result 3/4's through the school year I developed a bad Stuttering problem. My mother did intervine although I used my left hand freely again the stuttering stayed.The teacher recommended me for Speech class. I did speech class for 5 years. Fifty years later if I get upset or anxious the stuttering starts up. I hope these kind of tactics are still not being used today. Dale
  35. Carole Lavine
    At the time I began to stutter my mother noticed that I was sstruggling to write right handed. She told me to stop playing around and write the way I always used to. I told her my 4th grade teacher was making me write right handed. Mom went to school had a conference with the principal and my teacher and us lefties were left alone after that. That incident was 70 years ago. Over the years I learned to adapt to the right handed world and proudly notice more lefties. There are very few lefties in my generation. Most of us were converted. My favorite left handed joke is:
    Do you know what you call a lefty with brain damage?
    Right handed.
    I fully enjoy my unique diffeerences in being left handed. There are so many things that people do not realize are quite nice for lefties. Example a proper table setting. with forks on the left and knives on the right, the most used keys on the keyboard are left sided.
  36. Angela
    Fortunately, I was never forced to use my right hand over my left - my parents attitude was that as I'm naturally left-handed, then I should just carry on being left handed. It's only when I read stories like this and watch the film The King's Speech (George VI was left handed but forced to use his right hand) that I realise how lucky I am that I was never forced to change hands.
  37. Dr Eamonn Groves
    There has been research in this area and it is the subject of continuing research. There appears to be a correlation between weak laterality and stuttering. Weak laterality could well be linked to forced handedness. The early research was based in Iowa in the 1930s but the more recent research is uses modern imaging technology.
    See this article on PubMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22332811
  38. Kelly
    The above topic triggered my interest that there could be a link between stuttering and left handers who are forced to use their right hands. I am a left handed as well and noticed that i started stuttering since primary school. It becomes worse when i am nervous. Sometimes, trying to speak but words just can't come out. Eventually, its ended up with a lot of stammers and pauses.

    Is there any ways to stop stammering?
  39. Jon Asmus
    I started primary in 1953 at a NZ catholic school. Same story as others, but at least in my case the nuns approached my parents to ask to force me to write RH. Luckily (for at least me) our family doctor was a stuttered as a result of the same years earlier and said not to let them do it. Nevertheless, with ink pens etc and the refusal of the nuns to let me turn my books the other way from the RH pupils when writing I developed the familiar 'crab' writing style that lot of lefties have.
  40. Helen
    My mother stuttered all her life. It was the bain of her existence. She was painfully aware of her stutter and hated having to talk to strangers more so than people she knew. Making a telephone call was agony for her.

    She had no recollection of being right handed but suspected she may have been made to change hands when very young. This was confirmed for me when I went to stay with her brother who commented that I was "left-handed like my mother". I corrected him and said she was right-handed but he insisted she was a lefty. I explained her theory that she had been a lefty and was forced to change and she thought that was why she stuttered. He conceded that that was very possible.

    I was very fortunately that my father was also left-handed and taught me and my twin bother (also left-handed) to write correctly (we don't hook our hand around the pen) and noone ever tried to force us to use our right hand.

    I feel quite angry that my mother suffered this unjust prejudice which affected her whole life.
  41. Julie Vranicar
    I am left-handed, and quite proud of that fact, for starters! I also stutter. I don't remember a time in my life when I didn't stutter, but I don't remember ever being forced into using my right hand, throughout any of my early school years, Junior High or High School. I went to public school all the way through. Yet, I continued to stutter and still do to this day. I have known a few periods of fluency here and there. I don't think any of my struggles with stuttering have had anything to do with being left-handed, and others trying to 'change' me. I have wondered where my stuttering came from. I have had people suggest to me that there is a connection between being my beingleft-handed and stuttering. I remember how hard school was, academically, socially, and, I also remember everything in school being 'geared' toward right-handers; scissors, notebooks, desks(how I hated the desks that had the chair attached to it, and the table of the desk was always on the right side, so I would have to turn my entire body just to write on that little space of a desk!) I am thankful that my teachers didn't try to 'make' me use my right hand. Now, if only I could get rid of this stuttering issue!!!
  42. Niels de Ruijter
    In the first grade, my teacher wanted me to write right handed. I began to stutter and my father was on me all the time to stop. I told him what the teacher was doing with me, to get me to write right-handed. My father went to the school and told it to the head teacher then the teacher was told to leave me alone and let me write with the hand I wanted to write with. That she didn’t, she was fired. Then there was a new teacher who let me use my left hand, and my stuttering stopped. Now I am 56 years old and sometimes I have the feeling that I am stuttering butt nobody seems to hear it.
    Niels from Holland living in beautiful Norway
  43. Verna McEachern
    I first started to stutter when I was six, which coincidently was when I started school. I don't recall when it precisely started but reading about fellow lefties who stutter it probably began when I first started to print my first letter. My first grade teacher, God rest her soul. most likely saw that I was using my left hand and it was then that she forced the pencil in my right hand. It most likely took a while for me to catch on to writing with the right hand, but in the meantime, my brain was rebelling. It was telling me "WRITE WITH YOUR LEFT"...."WRITE WITH YOUR LEFT"..... but I couldn't because I would get into trouble if I did. Back then our teachers were taught to teach us to write with our right So as a result, I started to stutter, and when asked to provide an answer to a question, my answers would come out in a stammer. My parents weren't asked at the time to sit down with the teacher to find out why I was stammering, I think that if they could have worked with the teacher in order to solve the problem maybe it wouldn't have become such a problem to me over the years. My school days were the hardest for me as I was the brunt of many cruel jokes because I stammered. My fellow students just didn't understand just how hard it was for me to get my words out, so I ended up being picked on and I couldn't defend myself because if I tried to fight back with words, well.... Just when you think that you can move on, as in the case with me going from public school to high school it followed me there too. Words starting with most of the alphabet were big problem to me especially if I was nervous and adjitated and today as I near 60 they still are. I am greatful however, that those same classmates are now grown up enough and are now accepting me as I am. It still hurts though that they didn't do that back then. I guess that it took them a while to be mature enough to accept a person at to who they are and not their faults.
    .
    I joined the Rebekah Lodge in 1987 and when I reached the position of Noble Grand, it meant that I would be in charge of the meeting so speaking was part of the job. Again I relied on my fast thinking of substitution of words. I am getting better at the speaking without a stutter but as is the fact it still is there just waiting to come back.

    Today I have many friends who love me and support me no matter what. And...as for my speach impediment....it doesn't bother them at all.

    Thank you for letting me share with you what I have faced over the years as a result of my stuttering. I hope this will encourage others that no matter what you do in life, sometimes it matters not what problems you have that may be a problem to others it is what you become as a result is what really matters.

    Oh yes you'd be surprised as to what a lefty can do, just as good as a righty. There are many lefties out there who have become famous and look what they have accomplished.
  44. Lexie
    Nuns are so cruel to children and they get away with it causing years of psychological damage. I think most Nun schools are just abusive. Thank God my Mom encourgaged my being left handed but my teachers were verbally insulting and always single me out to make cruel comments. That had a long life long effect on me when a teacher and the class is encourgaged by the teacher to laugh at me. As a result I am not very social and refuse to partake in any work or school class that requires me to write in class . I will never write on a board. I still as a senior citizen (!) get insulting comments from people when I write left handed in public. I feel for all the stutters out there . I would like to see a survey of the psychological damage to left handers caused by cruel treatment during our lives. I thank my Mom for always being supportive of my being left handed.
  45. Frank
    Hi,
    With respect to your question on research on being forced to write right handed, you may get in contact with Johanna Barbara Sattler from Germany who did a lot of research on this subject.
    Best wishes,
    Frank
  46. mary wardell
    I was never made to write with my right hand, there being other lefties in the family. However, at 18 I went to Teacher Training College & was not allowed to write on the board with my left hand in case I encouraged others to do the same. I still have to think which way to write if I'm tired as it is far easier to mirror-write than write in the conventional way. Incidentally, I used to bowl at Rounders with my right hand (underarm) but throw overarm with my left hand.
  47. Carolyn Saunders
    I too had the trauma of a teacher making me use my right-hand so that I developed a stammer. Thank heavens my sensible mother stormed up to the school and spoke to the Head. ok, my handwriting was never good (mainly due to using right-hand nib pens) but the stammer only comes back occasionally. Oddly, I am pretty well ambidextrous (apart from writing) - played hockey and batted at cricket right-handed but bowled left-handed.
  48. A Stuttering Survivor
    Hello. My stuttering, so I was told, didn't have anything to do with the hand I used to write. I use my left and was not punished or ever made to use my right after they first saw I could not use my right the first day I tried back in first grade. The teacher just said ok then try using your left. She then saw it was helpng me do it and said "Good job. I am glad it is working for you." The reason I stuttered was actually hearing an older relative yelling so much it must have scared me deep down inside. I heard, years later, that a school psychologist told that to my parents.
  49. Marian Hall
    I am left-handed and have never stuttered. In the weeks following the sudden death of my father, both my mother and I developed a stutter that seemed involuntary (yet almost an affectation). This was transient and neither of us stutters any longer. I think that the stress of having to change hands to write and the stress of bereavement may cause similar mental interference in language production.

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