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What is your hand dominance?
Right-handed from birth 19%  19%  [ 37 ]
Right-handed from birth 19%  19%  [ 38 ]
Left-handed from birth 11%  11%  [ 22 ]
Left-handed from birth 11%  11%  [ 22 ]
Born Ambidextrous (equal or near-equal use of both) 8%  8%  [ 16 ]
Born Ambidextrous (equal or near-equal use of both) 8%  8%  [ 16 ]
Became Ambidextrous (partial or complete) 8%  8%  [ 16 ]
Became Ambidextrous (partial or complete) 8%  8%  [ 16 ]
changed hand dominance from one to the other 3%  3%  [ 6 ]
changed hand dominance from one to the other 3%  3%  [ 6 ]
None of the above 1%  1%  [ 2 ]
None of the above 1%  1%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 199

MONKEY
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17 Aug 2009, 6:06 pm

Left handed from birth and still am to this day. I am also very right brained which makes sense.


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Flismflop
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17 Aug 2009, 9:56 pm

I was born ambidextrous. I can distinctly remember a gradeschool teacher introducing the concept of hand-dominance, which sounded really strange to me. At that time, I was recalling having used whichever hand that any particular task accommodated. I play several unrelated musical instruments, all of which require equal amounts of work and precision from both hands. I skateboard and surf with my right foot forward, and can snowboard equally well in either stance. Eye dominance tests are inconclusive for me.

I believe that everyone is born ambidextrous and are either taught at an early age to be right handed, or the result of a personal decision on hand dominance after learning about it in school, or not accepted the theory of hand dominance. I don't believe in any corelation of hand dominance with "brain hemispherical dominance", as things like creativity cannot be quantified.


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FrogGirl
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17 Aug 2009, 10:33 pm

I usually use my right hand when writing, but can use both when drawing, painting, etc. (art). I also found that I can drive with both of my feet, and not get confused as to which is the one for the break. I had broke my right foot when I was 17, and couldn't use it to drive, so for a while, I learned to use my left foot. Then after my right foot healed, I drove with my right foot on the gas, and my left foot on the break and have done since then. If i need to(such as if I need to take a drivers test) I can drive with just my right foot. My parents got so upset when I started driving this way. My dad had told me that If I couldn't use my right foot for the peddles, then I couldn't drive the family car. I had to show him that I could drive very well that way. I have much quicker reactions with both feet on the peddles, than when I use just one foot.



jpfudgeworth
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10 Sep 2010, 3:14 am

I'm very left-handed and always have been. The only thing I prefer to use my right hand for is using scissors, ironically. The absence of left, or bi-handed scissors forced me to learn that skill right-handed.

My four best friends have been left-handed, so I have kind of developed an affinity for lefties like myself.



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10 Sep 2010, 4:53 am

I'm a boring, common right-handed person. I did try to write with my left-hand for a few months because I wanted to 'become ambidextrous', but then I gave up because my writing looked horrible and it took me many minutes to write one small sentence.


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pgd
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10 Sep 2010, 10:28 am

polymathpoolplayer wrote:
I am ambidextrous, being an accomplished pianist who started at the age of 3. I started as a rightie.
I can't thread a needle left-handed but can do just about anything else.

While I have not seen any studies on this subject I believe it probable that more people on the spectrum are either left-handed or ambidextrous than the population as a whole.

Thanks for your assistance and for your interesting anecdotes!


---

Most persons in society are right-handed.

There are lists of famous persons (including presidents) who were left-handed.

---

Yes, certain instruments such as the piano/organ favor persons who are ambidextrous.

The most unusual book I have read about this topic of left, right, or ambidextrous is a How To (understand) book (1981) about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild where he reports the effect of several FDA approved medicines on his ability to play the piano with both hands a little better (not a cure). He reports that Tirend, a FDA approved alertness aid (contains caffeine - 100 mg/14 other ingredients) temporarily made him ambidextrous vs NoDoz, a FDA approved alertness aid (contains 100 mg caffeine/7 other ingredients) which favored his right hand. He also reports that a FDA approved anti-motion medicine, Bonine, allowed him to temporarily sense the center of his body/improve body balance which is needed to skip rope in a gym or to sail a sailboat on San Francisco Bay. None of the medicines (Tirend, NoDoz, Bonine) are cures. His How To book about ADHD directly addresses such ideas as body balance, crossing the midline of the body, gross and fine motor control, hyperactivity, normal activity, hypoactivity and so on. He also discussed other medicines such as Ritalin and Dilantin.

Words

Body balance
Gross and fine motor control
Crossing the midline of the body

Hyperactivity (Hyperkinesis)
Normal activity (Normal kinesis)
Hypoactivity (Hypokinesis)

Dyspraxia
Apraxia

Corpus callosum
Lateralization of the brain
Reticular formation
Cerebellum

and so on



ladyrain
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10 Sep 2010, 4:00 pm

b9 wrote:
i am almost ambidextrous. i am more proficient with my right hand but i am adequate with my left as well.
sometimes i write things with my left hand if the paper and pen are on my left hand side.

I think I'm naturally ambidextrous, but have developed habitual preferences rather than handedness, since when it's more convenient I'll use the other hand without thinking. My right-hand does have a bit more strength, but sometimes neither hand is very good, no doubt due to dyspraxia and fine-motor control problems. I often try them both, to see which suits a task better. Cutlery has always been the wrong way round, unless I consciously focus on what's expected.

Strangely, after I learnt to write, perhaps due to encouraged right-handedness, I stopped using my left-hand for anything for a couple of years, I forgot it existed, and did everything one-handed. Then one day I noticed it, and started using it again, which seemed odd for a while. It's easier to unconsciously write from right-to-left with my left hand, although hard for someone else to read. :)



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10 Sep 2010, 4:04 pm

I'm right-handed. In fact, my left hand is very weak compared to my right-hand. It's really weird but I always use my right hand for everything because I often feel anything in my left hand is heavier than when its in my right hand. I'm really not sure why the but I feel it's just a bit of a weakness I have.


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10 Sep 2010, 4:04 pm

I'm left-handed.


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gramirez
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10 Sep 2010, 4:09 pm

I'm left-handed, but I wish I was right-handed.


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Amik
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11 Sep 2010, 1:56 pm

I'm not sure whether I would be considered ambidextrous or mixed-handed, so I didn't vote in the poll. My guess is ambidextrous though.

I can do practically everything with either hand and with most tasks I use my hands interchangeably. With a certain few tasks I have a preference for which hand to use though and I may be a bit better at a particular task with one hand than with the other, maybe because I do it more often with the preferred hand.



rowingineden
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11 Sep 2010, 2:11 pm

I think I was born ambidextrous, but I was socialized into using my right hand. I still often instinctively try a new activity with my left first.



rmctagg09
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11 Sep 2010, 7:25 pm

Left handed, though I think I'm truly cross-dominant.



clumsybee
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11 Sep 2010, 7:30 pm

I'm right handed, and I have difficulty doing those same one handed tasks with my left hand.



Spyral
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11 Sep 2010, 7:49 pm

I'm a leftie but I still do some things (like using scissors) with my right hand. My mom actually asked my pediatrician what she could do to make me right handed and he laughed at her.

We're in good company, though:

Image


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Notsurprised
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11 Sep 2010, 10:59 pm

Ambedextrous here probably from birth remember asking my mom what hand I was. I think she really
did not know what to say, she said " the hand that feels the best" must have been only four or five at the time.
I hear that most dyslexic have trouble with left and right.
I once saw I illusion with a dancer that spins. It spins to the left or right depending on what side of your brian
is dominate. It spins both ways for me. Had a dotor said that being ambedextrous means very little
I wonder if he said to so i would not worry about it