Is there a connection between aspergers and left-handedness?

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Well other than reading about it in an article, by people also mentioning whether they ["Herp derp, I'm Autie and right handed"] it gives you a very small sample on whether it is true within this thread. Just to see if it seems about right.. obviously without many people and really knowing whether they are diagnosed with AS it isn't very accurate, but it is a sample nonetheless.

Oh and I doubt anyone will think oh you don't use this hand, so your not AS. It's just something interesting to speculate about that even experts probably know little about. I really do believe I read an article that is pretty much the opposite of the article someone else posted about it being more likely they'd be right handed. Also AS isn't perceived as just a personality trait people have that are similar.. it has more to do with the brain. This is probably a bad comparison, but some people that are born with certain disabilities.. also tend to look certain ways that are similar to others and those are just little malfunctions in certain areas that they are born with.

i'm very righthanded and at kickboxing classes was told by the instructor that my right hand is much, much better than my left and i should use my left more. my NT sister is lefthanded and so is her NT son.

Agreed!

Yes. So if people are basically throwing darts at the wall, some of them are actually going to hit the target. Sometimes, even if the person asking about the correlation has no real basis for making the correlation, the correlation is still real. It seems strange to get annoyed about those correlations, or deny that they could be true. It's completely sensible to question why people would connect autism to every possible trait. But some traits are still correlated with autism.

I'm Aspie, left-handed, one of the only left-handed students in my classes, and the only girl leftie. The other leftie is a boy and I'm pretty sure he's NT. I don't think there's any correlation between Autism and handedness. I'm just one Aspie in this world who happens to be left-handed.

Oh. sorry, I didn't realize there were rules so narrowly defining reply content. Where are they printed?

The thread title, which is "connection", not "mutually-inclusive overlap".

Identical twin studies could prove this one way or the other. The incidence of left-handedness in the general population is about 10%. But, the incidence of lef-handedness in pairs of twins is about 20%. So, it should be quite easy to find pairs of twins where one is right handed and the other is left handed.

I'm not sure what identical twin studies would prove one way or the other.

What I read somewhere (which may be outdated by this point) was that there's a genetic sequence for right-handedness, but not one for left-handedness. Approximately 80% of the population has this gene. Of the other 20%, approximately half are right handed, and the other half are not.

Take several hundred pairs of identical twins, where one is right handed and one is left handed. Spilt them into 2 groups (left and right). Then assess them for any signs of autism. If there is a significant difference between the left handed and right handed groups, then hand dominance is significant in the development of autism. If not, hand dominance is irrelevant in the development of autism.

There have already been several studies that have found a correlation between autism and other developmental disabilities and not being right handed. The idea itself shouldn't even be controversial, especially since handedness is also a consequence of how the brain develops.

Sorry, I don't wish to argue with you as I think we have similar points of view on the matter. I don't think the idea is controversial at all. I often post on here when people disregard the correlation between autism and digestive issues, motor problems, dyslexia and so on. There have been plenty of studies to suggest these things are connected and the fact that one or two post that they don't have any other issues is really insignificant. I was just saying that there's no point in everyone coming on here and arguing, when there are perfectly reasonable scientific methods for investigating the matter. Unless someone can quote from a recognised study, then the answer is still there in the ether. I'm all for unbiased studies being done.

I linked multiple studies in Fnord's thread.

You can find my post about it on the first page:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt181732.html

I wasn't trying to argue with you, I just got the impression you didn't know about those studies.

Thanks for that. I missed it.

Reviving this topic. Any more thoughts? Left-handed people IMO actually think differently in some ways compared to right-handed people. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems like in general lefties have more of the rational and less of the emotional. Not that lefties are sociopaths or righties are blobby emotional sooks but when you consider how many presidents have been left-handed it seems like there's something fundamentally different about left-handed people.

I'm right-handed, but definitely on the spectrum. I could certainly teach my left-hand how to write though. While not ambidextrious, my left hand can write fairly well. Anyway, I don't think there is a relationship between right or left handedness and aspergers/ASDs.