# Did you ever have trouble knowing your left and right? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934 "2012-04-25T18:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/61 "2012-04-27T15:59:47Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > The “make an L with your hands” never worked for me because I couldn’t remember which way an L faced (seriously). > > Now I just take a second and think which hand I write with. I still can’t know instinctively, tho. Like a bunch of other people, that didn’t help. (I’ve got slight dyslexia too). You would think it would, since my name starts with L, but no. And under pressure I can’t think of what hand I write with immediately either. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > The only time this is a problem is freeway exchanges, when I have to make a split-second decision to go (say) I-5 North or I-5 South. Even in the city where I grew up and learned to drive, I occasionally read the sign, get it backwards, and go the wrong direction. I do this, especially if I’m down in Los Angeles. Usually I have to drive East to get home. Not when I’m further East than home. :smack: > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Those of you who have trouble knowing your left from your right: are you ambidextrous? I would have thought that people who were definitively right-handed, or definitively left-handed, would therefore know which _was_ their right/left. I’m about 90% right-handed (I’ve trained myself to be ambidextrous somewhat although I’ve lost a bunch of it). It doesn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/62 "2012-04-29T13:56:29Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The research I’ve done suggested the problem stems from not crawling as a toddler. My mother says I never crawled. I just stood up and walked one day. Apparently I did the same thing, just got up, picked up something and walked across the room… I never learned my left from my right either at home or at school, at some point I copped on that I write with my right hand, so the other hand is my left. I’d often have to find a pen and pretend to write with it, in order to determine which hand was which. Somewhere along the line I figured it out, but if someone says “your left foot” I have to stop to think. It gets confusing around horses as well as they have a near and off [side] not a right and left… 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/63 "2012-04-29T16:38:04Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The research I’ve done suggested the problem stems from not crawling as a toddler. My mother says I never crawled. I just stood up and walked one day. Not only did I crawl, but _I crawled in preference to walking_, for quite a long time after I could walk. I’m sure the issue is rather complicated and not tied to any one thing. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/64 "2012-04-29T17:27:55Z")
I didn’t get the hang of it until I was 5 years old. One evening after dinner my mom said she’d left a bowl of candy for me in the kitchen, by the right side of the stove. As soon as I saw it, something clicked and ever since then I’ve got it down. I’m just posting to say I remember what it was like before I learned it, and that there just seems to be no fixed point of reference, until somehow your brain is able to make it stick, it seems like an arbitrary distinction. Good old bilateral symmetry. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/65 "2012-04-29T21:42:00Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Not only did I crawl, but _I crawled in preference to walking_, for quite a long time after I could walk. > > I’m sure the issue is rather complicated and not tied to any one thing. I agree, AFAIK I crawled for the average time. In a family that will torment each other about any perceived differences over _decades_, this has never come up. Luckily, mum’s sense of direction (let alone left/right) is worse than anyone else’s in the family, so the rest of us got a pass on this. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/66 "2012-04-30T05:15:06Z")
ambidexterous and dyslexic, my brain is just wired wrong. Normally I cope just fine but when I am dog-tired or have a migraine, I pretty much lose the ability to shift things around in my mind and cope. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/67 "2012-04-30T19:58:51Z")
No doubt there was a time when I was first learning the concept that I had some troubles, but I can’t recall it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/68 "2012-04-30T20:04:56Z")
Well, sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. But otherwise, no. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934/69 "2012-04-30T21:11:20Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Those of you who have trouble knowing your left from your right: are you ambidextrous? I would have thought that people who were definitively right-handed, or definitively left-handed, would therefore know which _was_ their right/left. I’m right-handed, but not strongly. The first method I was taught for telling right from left, which is my automatic response, is to snap my fingers. This is pretty pointless because I can snap with _both_ hands. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-trouble-knowing-your-left-and-right/619934.md?page=3)