Trouble between left and right

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One of several things I was one of the last people in my class to learn! I was WAY ahead of everyone else in learning to read and write (and talk and walk, too, for that matter.)

But...

I didn't know my full name or my parents' names until late in Kindergarten. I have a lot of trouble remembering anyone's name unless it's someone I deal with every day for a long time. Even then, I forget the name again pretty easily.

I couldn't tell time on an analogue (dial) clock until about 5th or 6th grade (and still have to concentrate on it to get the time!)

I couldn't tie my own shoes until 4th or 5th grade. I still, in my 30's, prefer to just keep my shoes permanently tied, just loose enough that I can put them on and take them off without untying them.

It took me forever to learn left vs. right and compass directions, I finally figured them out somewhere just before the time I learned to tie my shoes and tell time, 2nd or third grade, I guess. I don't have any problem with compass directions now, but I am still a bit awkward with left and right - it's something I have to concentrate on and think about a bit more than other people seem to.

Measurements are another one that I had some trouble catching on to - I got inches to feet and feet to yards by first or second grade, but it wasn't until my last job, at about age 25, that I finally learned most of the liquid measures and weights needed for getting the cooking recipes right.



If I'm under stress in a conversation, though, I'll REALLY have trouble with names, dates, numbers, measurements, directions, and telling time! (And I doubt I can talk and tie shoes at the same time, though I don't remember any time where I ever tried....)

Yes, but for the most part, direction, such as south or north, is irrelevant when talking about left or right, unless your using a map. If you're going the opposite way as the map shows, then the directions will be reversed.

East is always left, and west is always right.

- Ray M -

I too have had problems with left and right, not too bad, i just have to think, look at my hands etc. before knowing, so it takes me a few more seconds then other people. As a kid i wrote L and R on my hands to remind me, i think i was about 8 or 9. Its not that i don't know which one is which, i do but i can't think about it without some kind of extra prompt. Same with compass points, i have to run through in my head the visual image of the compass or do the' Never Eat Shredded Wheat' thing, something like that.

I also visualize a compass and then decide which direction is which.

When I was a child and I tried to understand the sides I imagined one room (that was a kitchen). I imagined how I stand in that room. I remembered which side in that room is right and which is left. So it helped me to find out which side is left and right. Now I understand sides because of knowing which hand is my dominant.

I don't have any problems with left and right, but I do have one with north/south/east/west.

The way I remember it is by going round clockwise with the starting letters of a phrase I learnt when very young to help you remember the compass: Never Eat Shredded Wheat.

Yes, I've always had a lot of trouble with it.

I look at my hands and when it fails I just point 'that way!' I'm so glad I don't drive yet.

Yet another person with left-right problems

It was particularly amusing when I was still learning how to drive.

My instructor: Turn left at the next intersection.
Me: *reaches intersection, turns right*

I agree that it seems to be a common problem with the population in general. My driving instructor, for instance, was used to having students who couldn't tell left from right. For me, I would always get "left" wrong - every wrong turn I made during my lessons was from turning the wrong right

I think it mainly stems from disuse - I don't think most people always consciously practice which way is "right" and which is "left", unless you're in an activity where you need to actively direct or be directed.

I had a lot of trouble when I was learning how to tie my own shoes.

I also find it difficult to know which is left and which is right. If I don´t look at my hands and really think about it, I always say the wrong thing.
That has brought many situations, where people were angry with me, as I said turn left (in a car) where I was supposed to say Turn right. And vice versa.