{"id":11420,"date":"2013-01-03T22:14:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T22:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=11420"},"modified":"2013-01-03T22:14:05","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T22:14:05","slug":"know-your-left-and-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=11420","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Left And Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard someone recently criticising their pupils\u2019 education because they sometimes got their lefts and rights mixed up.<\/p>\n

I encounter left-right confusion frequently when I\u2019m te\"Leftaching, but never – for even a moment – have I attributed it to the standard of someone\u2019s education. In fact, it is a known<\/a> – but not completely understood – scientific phenomenon<\/a> (it\u2019s also one of the symptoms of dyslexia, though not necessarily one experienced by all dyslexics).<\/p>\n

Kids are taught their lefts and rights from the earliest age, and when they turn 17 – unless they\u2019re dyslexic and this is one of their symptoms – they know exactly<\/strong> where left and right are.<\/p>\n

Indeed, when I was a child I had no problem at all with telling left from right, or in being able to identify one or the other instantly, and I don\u2019t have a problem now. But for about 4 or 5 years in my late teens and early 20s I went through a phase where I often had to think hard about which was which when challenged to do so for some reason. As a typical teenager, it really had me worried because I knew there was an issue where there wasn\u2019t one before. But it disappeared as suddenly as I\u2019d noticed it appear. In later years I have always attributed it to the changes that occur as people mature physically. I am not dyslexic in any way, either.<\/p>\n

The problem, as distinct from dyslexia, apparently affects around 20-25% of the population. Even if you leave out my own theory of it affecting young people more than older ones, that still means a quarter of your pupils are likely to encounter difficulties.<\/p>\n

It can be a particular problem on driving lessons and driving tests. Why? Well, if someone is just driving to Tesco or to see their gran, they usually know where they\u2019re going and don\u2019t need to think about right or left – it\u2019s just \u201cthis way\u201d or \u201cthat way\u201d. But on lessons and tests directional instructions are given, and the driver then has to translate \u201cleft\u201d or \u201cright\u201d into real actions. That\u2019s when the left-right confusion kicks in.<\/p>\n

The one thing to remember is that no matter how badly someone is affected by this left-right confusion, it is not terminal as far as learning to drive is concerned.<\/p>\n

There are all kinds of things the instructor can do or advise to try to help them. Here are just a few:<\/p>\n