Cross Laterality: Right Handed But Left Eye Dominant!

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

Not sure here best to post...so please move or copy!!

 

I am an EYP awaiting results (eek) but also a Mum....and my son who's nearly 8, has always been a very good reader but striggled to write, especially once cursive introduced!

 

Friday he had his eyes tested....and it turns out he is cross-lateral. That is to say although right handed, his left eye is dominant!! it seems this will be a factor in hindering his reading development.

 

 

i just wondered if anyone has any experience of this professionally...and any advice, exercises, etc

 

I will of course be liasing with his teacher and school too

 

Many thanks

 

Luciebythesea

[AnonyMouse_79]

Sorry, Lucie, not sure how to help. This used many years ago to be considered a factor to consider for children who had learning difficulties but I have not seen it referred to for a long time now and not sure how to advise. You might want to try a search Tansley used to have materials to help this. Otherwise, practising left to right directionality and handwriting patterns could be a way forward.

[Guest]

My sympathies as a mum! My daughter, now 21, is cross-lateral although it didn't appear to affect her reading. She can do most things with either hand although she writes with her right hand, and used to drive me nuts by using her cutlery with the wrong hands for a right-handed person! On one particularly memorable occasion she did go to do archery with the guides and was asked by the instructor never to go again. Apparently she drew the bow using her left eye and then aimed using her right eye which caused quite a panic!

 

On a more helpful note there's quite a lot of info on cross laterality which you can google, and you can also find bits on the dyslexia sites, as there are similarities. The attachment isn't necessarily relevant to your situation but may fill in a few of your questions. If it's not helpful then discount it completely!

Cross_laterality.doc

Edited January 30, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

Wow, that's really interesting. Thanks for the link...

[Guest]

Hi Lucy,

Willwrite more fully tomorrow but I remember from a brain gym course that there are lots of simple movements and brain gym exercises that could be useful for your son. I will see what I can find tomorrow but it would definitely be worth researching brain gym and educational kinesiology.

 

Nicky Sussex

[AnonyMouse_4544]

http://esl.about.com/od/englishlessonplans/a/braingym.htm

there was a series of exercises on the kent website

[Guest]

Hi

What a coincidence, i have just discovered my son who is 11 is left eye dominant. he has recently joined a shooting club who are really helpful and have taught him how to shoot using his left eye. Whilst waiting for him I was reading the magazines-The Rifleman- which happened to have an article on eyes. I have always wondered why he is right handed but scoots the opposite way and pushes his bike so awkwardly(to me). No wonder he hates writing and thinks his handwriting is dreadful but added to that he has no knuckles in this thumbs so cannot bend them(discovered in year 2 and made me feel dreadful as a teacher that I had never noticed it). Still we have not made a big deal over it and he just gets on with school work, passed his 11+ and looking forward to grammar school.

[Guest]

This made me smile as I'm the same! I didn't find out until I was doing my SALT training [many years ago!] It didn't cause me many problems but I do notice I'll occasionally read right>left. Just an odd word. I do a lot of things left-handed, like dusting. I really struggle with mirror images, particularly doing my hair. In my SALT training I taught myself to write left-handed - to encourage stroke patients that it was possible - and some linguistics lectures were so boring that I took left handed notes writing from right to left!

 

Interestingly I have a left handed daughter who plays the violin in the conventional way - it was suggested that a left handed player might poke the others in the eye with the bow! She can't decide which hand is dominant if playing tennis or cricket. She writes beautifully though - just as wella s she's a primary teacher! My son is right-handed but uses cutlery left-handed and has the most atrocious writing - when he was 5 his teacher suggested we get a typewriter & he ended up being a computer programmer!