Telling left from right.

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Oh please sister, you don't even know what crappy handwriting looks like. I have virtually no fine motor skills, I'm ambi but I write left handed so I'm always smearing what I just wrote, and I got criticized so much as a child that I just flat don't give a s**t anymore about how bad my writing is. I mean seriously, my best isn't good enough in the penmanship department so why give anything less than the minimal effort since it won't make a difference? Besides we're in a typing society now, I'm kind of glad I didn't go overboard learning a dying art. That's right, not only do I not care about my poor penmanship, I'm kind of actually proud of that fact.

That's how I learned as a child. By making reference to imaging my dominant hand. Would think "if I were to pick up a crayon and start drawing which hand would I use?". Since I knew that I was "right handed" I gradually got it down that "right" is the same side as the hand I use. So if I had been ambidextrous I couldn't have learned the difference between right and left that way.

Have a cousin who I recently learned has trouble with right and left even now in middle age. He said someone told him to remember that "when you drive a car, your wife is on your right, and your wife is always right".

Don't know what hand my cousin uses though.

I'm right-handed but I cant tell left from right

I learned it as a child by sitting on the couch and the window was to my left. I sometimes still to this day (I'm 43 now) have to imagine sitting on the couch to find out what is left and right.

Haha I also smear the ink across the page when I write. I also had an appalling habit of putting capital letters in the middle of words, especially during school which is why I failed all of my English exams. When on the rare occasion that I have to write something down nowadays, I look at it and almost laugh with how ugly my handwriting looks. My signature is also ridiculous, it looks like a worm.

I've always had difficulty with telling my left from my right. I attribute it to my NVLD. I don't have that big of a problem with it now, unless it's differentiating left from right in a different position/angle or having to say the direction really fast without prompting. This is one of the main reasons I will never be able to drive. I could never get the hang of how to turn the steering wheel quickly, especially while backing up. I have always been strongly left-handed, so I don't think it has anything to do with handedness in my case.

As with all of my visual-spatial deficits, I used to be much more impaired as a child. I have learned adaptive skills and coping abilities over the years. A good example of something that I can do now that I used to not understand comes from my favorite game show, Press Your Luck. In the case of a tie, host Peter Tomarken would always say, "Player to my left goes first." I never used to be able to visualize HIS left from HIS position standing, and thus, I never understood why a particular contestant would be selected. I can visualize this now. I also never used to be able to understand clockwise vs. counterclockwise, but I know how to do this now if I trace the direction in the air with my finger. This is why I was able to do stereochem in organic chemistry, albeit with a lot of practice.

No, I only get it mixed up when I'm playing one of those games where things have to happen really quickly. Under regular circumstances I have no problem telling left from right. I learned as a kid without trouble.

I remember my first essay exam in History. I forgot to capitalize works. But, I got a great grade anyway, as the instructor pointed out I was the only one to actually answer the question! He also made a remark on my lack of capitalization to the class.

My handwriting was quite poor, but that is another issue that I fixed as an older adult. Why? Because I could.

The ONLY way I remembered left from right as a child was because I broke a finger on my right hand very badly in third grade tripping on a crack in a sidewalk and that finger to this day has had limited mobility. As a child then, I would flex fingers on both hands and I knew that my stiff finger was on my right hand. I used that test for years after the accident to determine my right from my left.

I was really, really bad with left and right when I was little, so I practiced a LOT to overcome it. Every once in a great while it trips me up, but I think it's mostly just me fumbling over my words, because I know what I meant to say in my head.

But if you hold your hands with your palms facing you, the RIGHT hand makes an L shape!

I knew someone who has "L" and "R" tattooed on their hands @_@


We learned it by remembering that W-E makes "we".

Or you can remember it by reading the letters clockwise, as "never eat soggy waffles".

Or in extreme cases, remember that the sun rises in the East, and sets in the West. We have a huge lake to the West, so it's easy to remember.

I can tell my left from my right. However, I have to pause and think about which way is left or right if the angle has changed.

I think it's a result of visual-spatial deficits in my case as well. I have a hard time with directions in general.

When I was in grade school I had a problem. But then I learned that I write with my right hand and then everything became very clear. From then on the fact that these two words are homophones (write, right) allows me to avoid confusion.

I suspect this trick will not work on left handed people or those that are ambidextrous.

I do know much of the time, as long as it's not asked too quickly.

I have equal amounts of strength with both hands (and feet), but usually write with my right, unless it's tied up somewhere and it's too inconvenient for me to dig it out (usually in a glove box).

But seeing left and right from other's perspectives is rather difficult.

I prefer NSEW for direction though.

I'm right handed and have a lot of trouble telling left from right. I'm always getting them mixed up. I'm pretty much banned from giving people directions while they're driving, because I've sent them the wrong way too many times.

I struggle with left and right and am also ambidextrous!
However I have always put that down to practical reasons for some physical issues I had whereby I had to start writing with my left hand for some time.
My hand writing is naturally very neat, and always was as a child, but it is a bit scruffier now largely due to laziness!

I can relate. I have to stop and think. "He went to the r... actually the left, sorry!".