Difficulty telling left from right when copying others

Post Reply New Topic

when under stress, like navigating a driver, I have 'difficulty', I know which way I am meant to be directing, but will blurt out the wrong one to the driver and then realise I said the wrong one.
For some reason they don't appreciate 'that way'

I'm not sure about making the 'L' shape with your left hand, do it now, and then rotate it 90[sup]o[/sup] clockwise. It makes a lowercase r and I have managed to make this many times.

Of course. But I have NLD. It has a lot of overlap with AS. Its a learning disability where verbal IQ is a lot higher than performance IQ. It means I have trouble with spatial relationships and stuff.

I can do left and right. I have trouble with East and West.

haha,i dont know my left from my right most days.NOR anyone elses!I also have the hot/cold issue.My friend taught me that the left hand makes an L though so thats helping.

No, that can't be it, reading and spelling and anything verbal is even one of my stronger points.

I've learnt to tell East and West apart by a mnemonic. And it doesn't necessarily have to be in gym class.

I've been thinking about that I might have that, too (NLD), in any case I'm 100% sure that my verbal IQ is very much higher than my performance IQ.
But then again I don't seem to have any of those extreme auditory skills which are supposed to come with it, like the ability to quote whole conversations exactly verbatim or whatever. Do all people with NLD have such skills, do you know?

I can't say I've had difficulty lately, although I did have it in the past. Left and Right is pretty much a switch like on and off. When the teacher says right and holds up his right leg (which would be to your left), you think right leg.

Err, I hope that makes sense, lol.

No, I was one of the FEW people in whichever sport class I've been to who got the directions right because I have excellent spatial abilities... or else, I have sort of memorised the fact that if somebody in front of you raises their leg on one side, your corresponding side is the opposite.

But I have troubles with sides if they just say "raise your right leg" without doing it. I have the same trouble with East and West... I find POINTING in directions to be very easier than saying them out loud.

As a child I would sort left from right by pretending to write, but these days I seem to know it OK. In a gym class I'll usually ignore what the instructor says and just mirror what she does - she moves the arm on "that side" of the room and I move the on the same side (of the room, not my body). If I'm listening but not looking (eg floor work), I sometimes get the wrong side.

East and West I sort out by picturing a map. I know that the direction of my parents' home is East, and the direction of Western Australia (A Clue!) is West

That's the same problem I have.

You definitely don't have to have mad auditory skills. Despite that in general my visual processing skills are poor (I have NLD), I'm way more likely to remember something I read than something I hear. BTW, it's generally either AS OR NLD, not both, since otherwise 80% of Aspies could be diagnosed with NLD. The final diagnosis generally depends on the relative severity of social vs. visuo-spatial skills. If you're interested in reading more on this, there was a great debate a week or so ago about it. Also, this site has some info:

http://www.nldline.com/as_vs_nld.htm

Edit: Actually, I just looked at your name- you posted in the debate thread, didn't you? Or am I remembering incorrectly?

Hi LostInSpace, yes you remember correctly, actually I posted the NLD thread also from a week ago or so to figure out the differences between AS and NLD (as well as if the latter could fit me). It's been really helpful and informative by the way, I also checked out the page already which you mention above (nldline.com).

I wonder, do you ever talk to yourself while learning? For me it's like I remember texts, infos and vocabularies best when I read them out loud to myself. But when I only listen to the professor for example without taking any notes I remember far less than if I take notes and look at them later or read something about it in a book.

Also I'd like to read some books about NLD, do you know any good ones by any chance?

I can quote whole conversations exactly verbatim however I have auditory problems. I have been thinking of it in me as a compensation for auditory problems - yet you say it is usually due to auditory skills being good?

Regarding left and right - I get them confused all the time. One of my arms is in a sling and people keep asking me variations of 'are you left/right handed' and I keep getting confused and giving the wrong answer. It doesnt help that due to auditory issues half the time Im trying to answer before fully processing what they say, but regardless yes, I get left and right mixed up all the time.

I too always seem to mess left and right up

Yes. And it's bad for dance, aerobic, or Yoga/Pilates classes.
I've also read people with dyscalculia have that problem. I'm bad at maths so....
Then again others probably aren't dyslexic or have dyscalculia.