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From: cleary@calgary.UUCP (John Cleary)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: dyslexia (really handedness)
Message-ID: <542@calgary.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-Nov-85 21:51:24 EST
Article-I.D.: calgary.542
Posted: Mon Nov 11 21:51:24 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Nov-85 21:05:35 EST
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Organization: University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
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> >.... I read and write normally. However, I
> >have a good bit of difficulty with right and left. This has a
> >surprising effect on my desires in user-interfaces.
> 
> Aha! somebody else has my problem... interesting that having difficulty
> deciding "which one is left" might be associated with dyslexia: could some
> kind cog-enger inform the net about the symptoms? 
> 
> I too read and write normally, except that many people consider that I do
> both much too fast, leading to
> 
> BTW, I'm a 26 year old bisexual English male of English/Dutch/Spanish
> ancestry:  have there been any studies of dyschirality (my own word for
> my problem - Greek: mishandedness) itself yet?

I too have similar problems.  I can never remember which cars to give way
to at uncontrolled intersections -- thank heavens most intersections in
North America are controlled (not so in New Zealand which is my home country).
I also am a fast reader and a reasonable mathematician.  Interestingly
my mother was completely ambidextrous and my brother had severe reading 
difficulties (he first learned to read at about age 14 and was then OK).
I am right handed when writing however whenever I tackle a new task my choice
of left/right handed is random (I iron left hande, play billiards left handed 
etc.) 
I recall results that mathematical and programming ability is in general linked
to left handedness (e.g. 50% of some mathematics departments are lefthanded)
I once did a quick poll of a software company I worked for, it had about
40% of some 70 people left handed.
Ther was also something in a recent Science about leftpaws having larger
corpus callosii(?sp).  Can anyone out there give more definite pointers
to literature on this?
I agree about human interface difficulties 
with left right I find great difficulty in making the distinction especially
quickly, if this is a trait shared with other computer programmers it seems
like a good thing to avoid.

I have Irish/Scots ancestry and I am not bisexual.

John G. Cleary,	Dept. Computer Science,	The University of Calgary,
2500 University Dr., N.W. Calgary, Alberta, CANADA T2N 1N4.
Ph. (403)220-6087
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