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From: smuga@mtuxo.UUCP (j.smuga)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: ambiguous handedness
Message-ID: <926@mtuxo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 15:50:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtuxo.926
Posted: Thu Aug 29 15:50:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 05:25:20 EDT
References: <445@aesat.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 36

> All right, there seems to be concurrence re detrimental effects of changing
> handedness, but what about cases of AMBIGUOUS handedness. 
>   ______			Russ Herman


My eight-year-old daughter eventually turned out to be right-handed,
but for most of her preschool years she used either hand equally.
A cluster of minor problems may or may not be related: the child had
fine-motor problems that became apparent when she couldn't seem to
complete her written work in first grade.  She did a lot of mirror
writing when she was in kindergarten, and continued to reverse some
characters to the end of first grade.  She also required speech
therapy when she started nursery school (she had a great vocabulary,
but only her Dad and I could understand a word she said).

The good news: the fine motor trouble is (was) a case of slow
development.  By the end of second grade she seemd to have caught up,
at least to the point where she could get her written assignments done
during the period assigned for them in school most of the time.  Her
speech is perfectly normal now, and she prints all characters
correctly.

A footnote: her gymnastics teacher found that my right-hander does her
best cartwheels lefty.

Oddly enough, my six-year-old also has small-motor problems, with her
eye muscles.  I had similar trouble with my eyes at her age.  The
vision therapist has suggested that these things tend to run in
families.
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Janet Smuga			I've had a great many troubles in my time,
mtuxo!smuga			and most of them never happened.

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