Education: Left to Right

Many a modern psychiatrist believes that trying to make a left-handed child write with his right is a crime only less heinous than making him eat spinach. Their theory: switching hands upsets a child emotionally, often causes stuttering. Last week a graduate student at Syracuse University threw doubt on this theory. Prompted by Professor Harry J. Heltman, chairman of Syracuse’s School of Speech, Graduate Student Elizabeth Daniels had examined 1,594 Syracuse freshmen, learned that:

≫ 1,422 students were righthanded, 138 ambidextrous, 34 lefthanded, 77 converted from left-to right-handedness.

≫ Stuttering was more than twice as common among left-handed and ambidextrous students as among righthanders. Proportion of stutterers in each group: lefthanders: 2.9%; ambidextrous: 2.9%; righthanders: 1.1%.

≫ Of the 77 switched from left to right, only one (1.3%) stuttered.