The problem of symbol reversals and confusions, their frequency and remediation

Abstract

For many years observations have been made of individuals who wrote in reversed patterns (in mirror fashion) or who jumbled letters within words and displaced digits in numbers that were written or copied. Another dramatic form of expression has been found among children who were by natural expression left-handed and who were changed to right-hand expression in writing, and then, for the first time, began to show some speech deficiency. In 1940 Bryngelson reported the results of his study of manual dominance in normal speech cases and stutterers.1 He found the following contrasting percentages in the two types. PERCENTAGES Dominance Normal Speakers Speech Defectives Right-handed 94 69 Left-handed 6 6 Ambidextrous 0 29 Shifted handedness 1 58 Left-handedness in family 42 49 Stutterers in family 6 53 Thus, it was shown that fewer speech defectives are right-handed than normal speakers; that more speech defectives are ambidextrous than normal speakers; and, that left-handedness and stuttering is found more often in the families of speech defectives than in normal speakers. Many other studies support the conclusion that manual dominance and