Hand definitions

Because, the mind-body mis-match considered here is identified, in its simplest terms,  as not writing with the wright hand we need to agree on how we define both hands.

The writing hand is easily observed: simply note which hand holds the pen when writing.

The wright hand is not so easily observed. One reason is that (a life time’s) practice even with the non-adept hand can improve performance.

The wright (or adept) hand is the hand better able to perform novel complex manipulo-spatial tasks with seemingly effortless ease.

A more functional way of describing the hands, to take the example of taking the lid off a capped bottle, is that one hand is the holding hand and the other the manipulating hand.

However to focus on only the hands is to miss the much bigger picture, which is that the right cerebral hemisphere ‘controls’ the left side of the body and the left cerebral hemisphere ‘controls’ the right side.

Thus, in the same way that there’s a holding and a manipulating hand there is, in the case of right (adept) handers , a left holding balance foot and a right manipulating kicking (accurately) foot.

To re-frame the more general feature as sidedeness, rather than handedness it is possible to establish an infants’ sideness’ well before the mastery of writing. Simply watch the toddler climbing stairs and notice which is the leading and which the catch-up leg. It will be the same leading and catch-up leg when they later attemmpt to descend the stairs.

Three points need emphasizing.

• The first is that the issue is not whether one is right or left handed and therefore writes with the right or left hand. Nor, as with hte Edinburgh Handedness (Self-Report) Inventory, measuring one’s degree of handedness.
• The second concerns the confounding factor of one’s sense of self-efficacy, self-concept and self-identity as being right handed and therfore in one’s right mind: in which case the label hand preference is more appropriate.  
• The third is the confounding effects of practice, which  renders unreliable such ‘tests’ of handendess as catching an unexpectedly thrown ball to someone to see which hand they (automatically) catch it with.