Left/Right confusion

[Greta]

I've recently been reminded of a problem my daughter has. She cannot keep straight which is the right side of her body and which is the left. This came to my attention years ago when she was in ballet lessons. Recently, she started Taekwondo, and she's having the same problem. The rest of the class turns right, she turns left. The teacher says punch with your left arm, she punches with her right. Poor thing just cannot get it straight, and I know it's not because she isn't trying. She even told her instructor today "I just forget these things so easily!"

 

Is this a dyslexia thing? Is there anything I could tell her instructor to do that could help her? Anything I could do at home to help her get this?

[LizzyBee]

Yes, many people who have dyslexia also have left/right confusion. To help my dd get it, I just constantly told her which shoe we were putting on and things like that. If your dd is consistently right or left-handed, you could mention that a couple times a day while she's writing. For class, could you tie a ribbon around one wrist or something like that? Or write an L and R on the back of her hands?

[kiki]

My ds has this issue too. We have done a lot of practice lately. We started with touch whatever with your _____ hand. Then we moved to touch your _____ knee with your ______ hand. Now we are comparing sides, is the bag to the left or the right of the chair? We also randomly say am I holding the pen with my right hand or my left hand. With a lot of practive he has gotten better. Oh there was a time he had to hold a pencil in his writing hand to help him remember that it was his right hand.

 

HTH,

Kirstin

[MicheleB]

My boys have dyslexia and have trouble with this as well. My oldest finally remembered that he "writes" with his "right" hand, so that has helped him some. It's still not automatic.

 

My youngest son, when he took karate 2 years ago, was a riot to watch. The instructor stood facing them, and so the kids were supposed to watch them and do the same movement with the same hand/foot. But of course, my son couldn't "flip" it around and visualize it like he was supposed to, so he was always using the wrong foot and the wrong hand. I think the instructor was a bit beside himself as to how to help him. :D

 

Our ST taught my son to make an "L" with his left hand, but that doesn't always work, since backwards looks the same as the "right" way sometimes... :)

[Laurie4b]

You could try showing her that when she opens her hands, palms down, the left hand makes an L. You can also actually label her feet/hands with a washable marker. Just practicing at home or in the van will help. Just call out randomly: raise your right hand, etc.

[Greta]

This is wonderful -- thanks for all the great suggestions! She's right-handed, so I've told her the old "you write with your right hand" thing a million times. For me, that became automatic at a pretty young age. Obviously, it's just not so simple for her, poor dear. So I'll practice with her as you all suggested and maybe she'll start to get it.

[Kathy in MD]

My ds's OT recommended putting weight bands on the right wrist and ankle (or left side, be consistant though) when playing sports such as tennis. This helps train the brain to instinctively learn which side of the body is doing the work.

 

My ds was further helped by an excercise in the now defunt BrainSkills (The sister programs PACE and Learning Rx are still available). He had a chart of arrows in different colors. At first he only had to point in the direction of the arrow in beat to a metronome. Later he had to point in different directions on beat based on either color or instructions (If the arrow points left, point right or if the arrow is blue point 90 degrees left, if red, point 90 degrees right).

 

After learning directionality "down deep", slapping on the labels "left" or "right" is easy.

[Greta]

Great ideas. Thanks so much!

[Janet in Toronto]

My sons see an osteopath and he suggested that left/right confusion (or, needing to take a few seconds to figure out which side is which) is associated with having equally strong halves of the brain. That is, not being either right- or left-brain dominant.

 

I only get (slightly) confused about sides when I am lying face down (say, on a massage table) and am told to lie on my left (or right) side. I really need to pause to figure out which side is which. Not a problem lying on my back or standing up. My younger son, who is left-handed, has a lot of difficulty with sides, and this is most noticeable in karate.

[Greta]

My sons see an osteopath and he suggested that left/right confusion (or, needing to take a few seconds to figure out which side is which) is associated with having equally strong halves of the brain. That is, not being either right- or left-brain dominant.

 

Interesting!