LEFT-HANDED WRITERS AND STUTTERING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3645, 31 May 1927, Page 2

LEFT-HANDED WRITERS AND STUTTERING.

SOME CURIOUS FACTS. At a meeting of the Manawatu brunch of the N.Z. Educational Inslitute on Saturday, Mr. X. T. Eambourne, chief inspector, said, in regard to naturally left-handed writers, that where those pupils had been compelled to write right-hand-ed, they had invariably begun to stutter. There seemed to be some connection between hand and speech. Mr. de Berry stated that American investigators had found out the same thing.

Mr. Lambourne added that there were fewer left-handed girls than boys and there was also a suspicion that left-handed people were slightly more intelligent than the right-handed (laughter). However, he thought it would be very wrong to force a child to change its hand. Mr. de Berry recalled having had a pupil who could only write upside down and was regarded as a curiosity. Another member mentioned a child, that not only wrote upside down, but back to front and stuttered as well. The child’s writing hand was changed and it then became quite normal. Mr. Lambourne recalled having come across pupils who, by some peculiar mental kink, wrote certain words backwards and yet others correctly. Another teacher instanced a lad whi stuttered, but if, when speaking someone held his wrist, the stammering immediately stopped. Later the Inspector stated that when discussing the matter of writing with the Headmasters’ Association previously, the general opinion was that in the first year of the primers, the children should print and do no writing at all. hi the second year printing should be continued for the first six months and then writing started.