left/right confusion

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hello.

I often get my left and right confused especially when someone tells me to take a quick left for example and I have to try to remember which is left and which is right or I'll motion toward the right when they tell me to take a left or vice versa.

It also comes up with scenes from movies. I'll remember someone doing something at one and of the screen but I'll rewatch the movie years later and discover they were actually on the complete opposite side.

I'll also have trouble remembering thing of which there are two. For example, port and starboard. I can't remember which is which. Things that are disparate I can remember like salt and pepper or apples and oranges but things that are similar that there are two of, most often, I can't remember. If there were some kind of lingual basis to the sides like "ant"erior and "post"erior, I can remember those are front and back because of their prefixes.

Tricks don't seem to work for me, either. For example, the making an "L" with your fingers to remember which is left and which is right. There's often no time to think to do that. If I were to ask someone, "hand me the tool in your left hand", I would have had to think about which hand the tool was in.

I know my left from my right. I have a wound on my right hand. Eczema only effects my left hand, et cetera. Other people's left and right, I get confused easily.

I am dyslexic but my doctor doesn't seem to think they're related. In fact, he just seems to shrug off the notion it's a psychological/psychiatric condition at all. I'm not convinced.

Strange. It is related to dyslexia or dyspraxia most of the time, though it may have nothing to do with it when it's the only symptom one have of course.

I recently read an article about how ASD's, as well as dyslexia, ADD, etc. had something do do with improper connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. The author was a local doctor who was offering some sort of brain training therapy, so I am a little skeptical of his hypothesis, but at the same time, this just sort of makes sense to me. I'm interested in what others have to say about this one.

I have an issue with confusing my rights and lefts too sometimes, it's such a pain. My friends tend to find it pretty amusing for some reason...anyway, about me; I have not been diagnosed with Asperger's but I have strong suspicions that I do have it, and I'm hoping to seek a diagnosis in the near future. I have depression and anxiety, and discalculia too, but not dyslexia. I think I did read somewhere that confusing your left and right could be an trait associated with Asperger's because it could be considered a motor problem, couldn't it? Having said that, I can think of at least one other person I know who also has a problem with confusing right and left and she does not have any kind of psychiatric/developmental disorder or anything, so your doctor is probably correct.

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My view is that if you're dyslexic, this left/right confusion may be a part of it. The most insightful book (no cures, some occasional insights perhaps) I've come across which addresses this idea of body balance/crossing the midline of the body/the left-right concept is a How To (understand) Hyperactivity book (1981) about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild. Wild discusses a number of FDA approved medicines (Tirend, NoDoz, Bonine, Ritalin, and Dilantin). It's what Wild reports about Bonine (an anti-motion medicine)(not a cure) is what applies to your question about left/right. Words: Body balance, crossing the midline of the body, left vs right, sequencing, ADHD Inattentive, dyslexia, dyspraxia, brain injury, neurology, sports concussion, constructional apraxia, and so on.

I'm delayed in figuring out left from right but I don't think it is anything severe or has caused me problems. I have an NT sibling who claims to also have the same problem, for what it's worth.

Me too. All the time.



I would have this problem too if I actually remembered spatial relationships in movies, but I don't. It's like that information doesn't even get recorded in my brain.



I have no idea which is port and which is starboard. But then I've rarely been on a boat so it hasn't come up. If I spent a lot of time on boats, I would probably screw it up constantly. I remember anterior and posterior mainly because people commonly use it as genteel slang for "butt". So if somebody uses one of those words, there is a 5 second delay in my understanding while I retrieve the mental file that says "posterior= butt, anterior is opposite of posterior so it=front". Like you, I have no trouble with other paired opposites such as apples/oranges, salt/pepper, up/down, parallel/perpendicular. It is a neurological mystery to me why I can easily remember parallel and perpendicular but have to go through little mental tricks to remember right/left and anterior/posterior.

I don't do the "L fingers=left" trick. Instead I do the the "I write with my right hand, write=right" trick. Yes, it's slow. Again there's that 5 second delay as I make a little writing motion with my right hand before I can properly respond. Countless times people have said to me, "hand me that tool that's on your right." Then I hand them the tool that's to my left and they laugh and say, "no, your other right".



I write with my right hand. write=right. that's how I remember. I get confused with other peoples' right and left also. Each time I must cumbersomely calculate it by first figuring out which is my right or left hand, then transposing it to them by mimicking turning myself around if I am facing them so my right and their right are on the same side or actually moving my right hand if we are standing next to each other. This whole process takes about 20 seconds which makes for wearisome delays.



I absolutely think that it is neurological/wiring. I am not dyslexic but I am dyscalculic. Maybe there is some faulty wiring in whatever module inside our heads is supposed to keep track of spatial orientation. When you come right down to it, dyslexia, dyscalcula and confusing left/right are glitches in the mental model of where things are. I can't mentally rotate objects either. If I am looking at a paper map, I need to physically rotate it to be able to tell if I should turn left or right at a particular intersection. I have a GPS in my car so no more paper maps. Instead a voice tells me I should turn left or right. But bless the makers of the thing, it gives 3 warnings before the actual turn which gives me plenty of time for the "write=right" trick with my hands.

So it's not just me! We don't have a GPS so when my husband is driving and I'm navigating, it's quite a sight. I'm constantly rotating the map.

i am very confused when it comes to left and right. I can figure it out if i have a few seconds, but if someone tells me TURN RIGHT, HERE! then im like where!.... i tell everyone to point in the direction that i need to go because it is easier for me than to pick up my hands and see which one forms an L...

However... if someone tells me the direction in Spanish or German(my special interests).. i understand it quicker than in English(my mother tongue)

When I was two, I was confused by left and right. To me, it was right and wrong. My right hand felt right doing thing, and my "left" hand felt wrong. It took me a long time to figure out what it was meant by left and right.

I was directionally challenged up till about nine. I couldn't differentiate turning left and right. I finally got ahold of that.

I am still directionally challenged to an extent. If someone says "turn left, turn to the left, in your left hand, etc" I'm all good. But if I need to drive somewhere, I super very often turn the wrong way despite knowing where I should go. I'm the "get lost in their own neighborhood" type, turning down the wrong street, going past my street, etc.

I've always got my right and left confused. My family gets so frustrated with me because of that, but I can't help it. I get a lot of things confused, not just that, but like starbored(?) or however you spell that word.

It's not just me!! Yay!! Seriously, left/right are not so easy for me. My own left/right is OK. I think "I am left-handed" (in the voice of Wesley from the Princess Bride). But other people--not so easy. One of my professors was trying to teach us simple signs in class this week and I just gave up. Couldn't figure out what she was doing. Ditto when people try and show me how to tie specific knots (didn't tie shoes until well into elementary school) and always assumed it was because the world is right-handed and I am just odd. (Half-right I suppose)

I don't get lost easily but I always repeat directions in the cardinal--turn West, South, etc. Those I can do easily. Reversing things--so if I pass the street now which way do I turn? Very difficult. Likewise with the turning maps so they face the direction I do. My family thinks this is funny and they'll say "no, your other left" or whatever. I laugh it off, but in all honesty thought "What is wrong with me?" But hey, thanks, Jedi, for pointing out I'm not alone.

yay! I helped!

Janissy, it's like we're clones.

I've had this problem, too. The difference is that I'm not dyslexic. I can tell my right hand from my left hand. If I'm giving someone directions and I need to figure out whether to say "left" or "right", I'll squeeze the hand that points in the right direction. It works.

I have aspie friends who have this problem too. One is a friend's sister (undiagnosed, but there are aspie traits in the family). She makes a mark on her hand to remember. She is ambidextrous, so remembering which one is her writing hand does not help.

One friend is good at knowing how to get to places, but he can't drive, and he tell me whether to turn left or right, because he can't remember the words in time. (He is a very intelligent guy who got high marks at university.) So I have asked him to point, saying, "Go this way," or "Turn that way at the next corner." It works fine.

I also have a friend who has ADHD who struggles with this more mildly.

I have the most difficult time with left and right too (I actually drew an L and an R on my wrists for my driving test because I was terrified of failing due to this) and for the longest time I thought it had something to do with my ambidexterity but recently my therapist gave me an article he found connecting this strange phenomena to some people with AS and ASD. I'll attempt to scan and send it to you, but my scanner only works sporadically.