I came across this when looking into a combination of factors; left-handedness, increased spatial reasoning ability, and autism. The path took me on a bit of a journey. As a leftie, I just thought I’d share this one.
I’m left-handed. People are often surprised that I am. I can learn to do things with both hands, like shoveling, sweeping, etc. I think it’s also easier to learn to use your non-dominant hand if you’re left-handed.
Mixed-handedness is even more prevalent in people with autism. I’m mixed-handed too, left handed for writing, but most things can be either hand.
Interesting! Some things I’ve naturally done right handed, like with firearms. I think I could shoot left-handed but I’ve never tried to.
I assume that you are right-eye dominant, which would determine firearm preference rather than your manual(?) handedness.
I guess writing hand/dominant hand. My dad was right handed and that’s probably just the way I was taught from a young age. One of my high school friends was right handed (afaik) and shot left handed. Having a dominant eye makes sense, like your dominant foot with skateboarding or snowboarding. Interesting to think about
I’m a lefty, a little bit on the spectrum, spatial awareness is good but only in particular trained settings.
What percentage of lefties are autistic?
What percentage of the population is autistic? In Australia this year, 1:25 kids between 7 and 14 were identified.
So twice as correlated with lefties, so are 10% of left-handed people autistic?
I’m too concerned that there might be a missing consideration here to be able to say that. At surface value without additional factors, I know that calculation is tempting to make, but the paper doesn’t necessarily say that. I think that logically, a set of very strongly correlated left-handers could exist that could skew the numbers. So if the research doesn’t explicitly say it, then I wouldn’t.
Wonder if theres a neurological link between dominant hand, or maybe theres still social pressures kids feel to be right handed and us on the spectrum just don’t really feel that, the same way a lot of us seem to be less effected by peer pressure.
My understanding is that handedness is mostly nature, not nurture. You can learn to use the other one, but you’ll never be better than with the naturally dominant hand. A lot of ambidextrous people are actually lefties who either forced themselves or were forced by outside factors to git gud with their right hand.
I had that thought too. But I remember reading about cave paintings where prehistoric people had painted their hands, and the distribution of lefts and rights was consistent with there being the same proportion of lefties as in modern times. And I doubt the social pressures around handedness go back that far.
Genetic? The interesting connection I think is with Fragile X syndrome where a genetic cause is known. There’s a 50% comorbidity with autism. In one study only 37% of subjects had a right hand preference (low numbers, though). There are a bunch of papers looking at handedness and ND. Link
I hadn’t really thought about before this, but I am right handed. Obviously we learn from observation. I can use my left hand for stuff, but don’t probably more from habit and that makes my left hand use more awkward because I have not practiced it. Thinking about it I don’t think it would be difficult to use my left hand for more.
You may fit the category of mixed-handed. Reasonably, I’d think it less likely for a right-handed person to be noticed as mixed-handed unless being tested for it due to the normal nature of right-handedness.
From the link: “Moreover, individuals on the autism spectrum were 2.34 times more likely to be mixed-handed than the general population and 3.48 times more likely to be either left-handed or mixed-handed than the general population.”
that is so interesting! i’m an autistic leftie too
Same
Which means 72% of autistic people are right-handed.
If we were to claim there is a link: right-handedness increases risks of autism?
“About 28 percent of people on the autism spectrum are left-handers compared to 10 percent in the general population.”
"The researchers found that individuals on the autism spectrum were 2.49 times more likely to be left-handed than people without autism.
Altogether, about 28 percent of individuals on the autism spectrum were left-handed as compared to about 10 percent in the general population.
Moreover, individuals on the autism spectrum were 2.34 times more likely to be mixed-handed than the general population and 3.48 times more likely to be either left-handed or mixed-handed than the general population."
