Is there a connection between aspergers and left-handedness?

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The percentage of the population that is not right-handed (left-handed, ambiguous, ambidextrous) is ~10%.

I'm right-handed and very ASD. My nephew is not diagnosed, but pretty sure is ASD and he is left handed. My grandfather was never diagnosed, but almost certain he was ASD also, and he was right handed. I don't think the hand one writes with is indicative of autisticness.

You certainly can't diagnose autism based on anyone's handedness, it simply looks like one of those things where being non-righthanded is more likely. It also seems it's more likely for some learning disabilities and other developmental disabilities. It's a correlation, although how much of one remains to be established.

Hey, just something that's a little 'interesting'...some people in their 50s and older can remember the sometimes-dreadful lengths those 'in charge' (such as teachers, nuns, etc.) went to in order to 'train' lefties NOT to use their left hands. It used to be that many of the mainstream were very determined to not permit children to grow up using the 'wrong' hand.

Anyway, my left hand is dominant for some things, my right hand for others, and both my hands 'interchangeably' for a short list of things.

Once again, this is just another bizarre correlation between autism and so and so. Almost everyone I know with it is not left-handed and if I recall, I don't think Temple Grandin is either.

Do you mean not right-handed, as that is what the thread is suggesting and it appears that you are agreeing with the thread?

My grandmother went through this, and had a lot of stories to tell about it. She actually tried to make them sound funny, but they were still pretty horrific.



I linked a lot of research in Fnord's thread that indicates the possibility that not being right-handed is more likely among autistic people than it is among NTs. This is not the same thing as "the majority of autists are left-handed" or that left handedness is an indicator of autism, as I think neither of these things are supported by what I did link.

I do kind of admit that the way the OP used anecdotal evidence and others (like yourself) used anecdotal evidence to counter the OP is rather frustrating - not in the sense that anecdotal evidence is invalid or not evidence, but that neither of you are arguing with statistics, and thus you're not making any valid statements on what you're trying to support or refute. Temple Grandin is also employed, which makes her a statistical outlier for autistic people in general - you can't draw conclusions from individuals like that, or from the people you know.

Interesting thread. My mother was left-handed and a super clutz because they tried to force her to be right-handed when she was in school. 4 of my 8 siblings are left-handed. I am the only Aspie and I am right-handed. I'm the only one with green eyes, too. The rest have brown or blue.

My older brother's grandson is on the spectrum. He's left-handed, like his grand-pa.

Being left-handed is a little weird when people make a big deal about it. I never really notice a difference in any of my sibs but the lefties were almost half the crowd.

No, I means all these people are right-handed and not left!

Well how many autistic people do you know? Less than 10?

Why does EVERYTHING possible has some sort of connection to Autism? Haven't study people got anything else better to do than to invent new traits to Autism?

Everything possible doesn't have a connection to autism. This particular thing might. Why reject everything out of hand?

And I would not even say for sure there's a connection beyond, "this trait tends to travel with autism more often than with other people."

So, um, to remind people of what we're talking about here:

It doesn't matter if most Autistic people are right handed,
or if most lefties are neuro-typical.

The question is whether there is a noticeably higher incidence of non-right handedness on the spectrum than outside it.

So "Herp derp, I'm Autie and right handed" and "Herp derp, so and so's NT and left-handed" has no bearing on the discussion.

THANK YOU.

FFS.

Like saying white people aren't more likely to have blue eyes because many of us don't.

I know more people in general who are right-handed, that's all.

It's just that every week there is something random on here what is apparently connected to Autism, something as random as having blonde hair or green eyes or a big nose or growing more wisdom teeth or having 5 moles on your right leg or having shorter eyelashes or having a loud sneeze or something else random like that.

Last edited by Joe90 on 27 Nov 2011, 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The notion that there are some individuals in whom recessive traits
and those resultant of mutations
observably-cluster
is hardly unevidenced.

With something like handedness, which is related to neurology, it would seem there would prima facie be more reason to suspect a correlation than anything you listed.