Hard time telling left from right

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Hey gang,

Got a question is it a symptom of ASD to have difficulties from time to time differentiating between left and right I'll give an example when I was driving over the weekend somebody told me to make a left at an intersection and I ended up making a right thinking I made a left likewise sometimes when a person asks me to find something they would say it's in the right side of the room and I look towards the left is that common comorbidity for those whom are on the spectrum or is it another issue altogether?

learning disabilities are common among spectrumites. i wear my watch on my left. that keeps me straight.

having an issue from time to time differentiating between left and right is a learning disability?

mine is related to visual spatial learning disabilities. it can be related to dyslexia. so, yes.

I was told that it is a spectrum trait. I tend to forget I have that issue until it happens.

I'm pretty sure I am dyslexic to what extent I'm unsure because when I do read something I have troubles with differentiating letters "b" "d" and "P' and when writing out something by hand I have to spell out the word dog or bog doy or boy because I have an issue telling d and b apart sucks I know.

For years I would get confused by the differences between my personal left and right and someone else's. Sometimes when someone says something like "turn right", I have to ask, "Your right or my right?", if you know what I mean. I'm also left-handed and some of the "rules" about always using your right hand for things like shaking or saluting made me very confused until I was in my mid-teens. My parents are both lefties too, so that may have also added to my confusion. In spite of this, I'm proud to a sinister person.

that is one of the reasons I cannot drive. I am never sure whether to turn left or "the other left," as people have teasingly said to me

that is one of the reasons I cannot drive. I am never sure whether to turn left or "the other left," as people have teasingly said to me

I prefer the terms passengers side or drivers side, directions are better given with a hand pointing in the direction you are suppost to go in. Then there are the deeper communication issues of your left verses my left, my right versus your right etc. There are ways around left or right or port and starboard in marine language.

For a few years after 5th grade, I had to face west (I think it's west anyway, I remembered because I faced that direction in class) to figure out left from right. Now, making the L is helpful, but before I wasn't even sure which way an L went. I can sometimes figure it out while I'm driving, but many other times are still confusing.

There's things I figured out to help figure out left from right while I'm driving, like "tight" turns are right and big turns are left, but that's sometimes confusing too. "Which side makes the scraping nose when you turn which way?" Uhhh. "It's on the left." Is left my L or your L? lol

This is an ASD thing?

I always assumed confusion regarding left and right to be a woman thing, nay, a NT woman thing.

Forgive the generalisation, but that's from my experience. I've met some men who were badly coordinated too, but they're in a minority. The only Aspie female I know claims to be very clumsy, but she's actually a bit of a ninja and berates other women for not being able to tell left from right or crunch vectors under stress.

Ninja here. No confusing left and right.

Side question: those of you who answer this thread - are you left or right-handed? I understand (perhaps delusion) left-handed people have some kind of magic advantage in terms of spatial awareness and coordination.

While I never thought of it as an ASD trait, I often confuse left from right. It made driving lessons a bit nerve-racking at first.

I have trouble translating the "right" and "left" words to actual sides. I need to think: right is the side of the hand I write, the side the pasager sits in a car(in my country) etc. Thats why I usually say "this side<points>", or "your side/my side", "like the orange house" instead of using "left / right".

But I have no problem imagining where the left/right is to someone in practice. For example there is a road traffic rule in our country that when there is no signs on a road the one on the right is the first to ride. It is fine for everyone when you are going straight (you only have to let the one on your right go) but some people have a problem imagining how the "right rule" goes when you turn left. It is because you have to let go both cars: the one on your right and the one on the road in front of you. They just can't imagine the one in front will be on your right side once you start turning left - so they have to remember both situations as different rules. I get it as one rule since I see the "right priority" in both cases.

Yes. I believe that I was about nine years old once I started to understand the difference between right and left. I think that I remember my speech therapist correcting me when I had my pencil in the right hand which was wrong. ( "right" and "wrong").

Anyway, I still have to think a little bit when someone says "left" or "right".

Same here. When I'm giving directions (and I seem to have the kind of face that says "ask me for directions!" so it happens quite often) I'll use my hands to indicate which direction people need to go in. And frequently I'll find myself saying "you need to go left" while gesturing to the right. The gestures are correct, but the wrong word will come out. (I've actually said to people "if I say 'left' or 'right' you need to watch my hands, not listen to what I'm saying." Which doesn't make things any less confusing.)

Vice versa, if someone gives me directions, I have to picture myself following the route they're describing, and I may very easily picture myself turning left when the person has told me to turn right. And then I get lost