Psychological aspects of left-handedness: Concept, causes, and peculiarities

Abstract

Left-handed is a characteristic of individual typological features of a person. At the present stage of society, solving a number of psychological problems in the traditional educational process, it is important to investigate psychophysiological peculiarities and specificity of causes of the laterality pattern’s formation in junior schoolchildren. Children with a left-sided profile are not a homogeneous group. Among the causes of left-handedness are the following: heredity or genetic left-handedness (as an individual congenital characteristic), pathological or compensatory (as a result of the compensation mechanism), forced or acquired (as a result of injury to the right hand or retraining). Recent studies describe how left-handers differ greatly from right-handed schoolchildren in their mental development, world’s perception, prevailing thinking strategies and specificity of emotional-affective expression. The reasons for this are manifold. However, the key factor is the inextricable and intimate connection of the left-handedness and the hemispheric dominance that leads to a specific functional organization, of the brain work. This means that the left-handed brain works and complies by some other rules in comparison with right-handed people. As a result they have some educational peculiarities and difficulties. In most cases, these children have difficulties in mastering oral and written language skills, numeracy and mathematical operations. A characteristic feature of left handers is the insufficient and specific development of visual perception, which normally creates the basis for mastering reading and writing. Unfortunately children with left handedness do not receive adequate assistance in school, since education and upbringing are focused on right handed people. It is also shown that «traditional» retraining in early childhood can lead to distress, which has a negative impact on the children. Therefore, it is necessary to include in the educational process special methods and techniques. Thus it will be a favorable condition for their harmonious personal and intellectual development and effective mastering of various modules of the school curriculum. This article presents a theoretical model analysis of the causes and consequences of the development of sinistrality, briefly considered the psychological characteristics of left-handed children.