Händigkeitstestung

 

Diagnosis of handedness based on Dr. Johanna Barbara Sattler

Even today left-handed people are sometimes considered an insignificant part of society. However, they account for a much larger share of the population than officially assumed. The distortion of the official statistics has been caused by the long-standing common practice of converting from left to right hand. Converting the writing hand often leads to the appearance of various dysfunctions, which in turn have negative effects on secondary processes. Today, converting is usually done at a rather early age, i.e. at infant age or when children go to nursery schools. In some cases, it's the children themselves who retrain their hands during their socialisation in order to fit into a right-handed world. As these children appear right-handed, the potential after effects of retraining aren't recognised and often result in misdiagnoses and wrong causal attributions of secondary effects.

The primary effects of converting handedness may include:

  • memory disorders, especially when recalling learned material
  • concentration deficits, e.g. easy susceptibility to fatigue
  • dyslexia problems, i.e. reading and spelling difficulties
  • spatial disorientation. i.e. uncertainty concerning the left and right
  • disorders in fine motor skills that manifest themselves in handwriting
  • disturbances in speech, including stammering and stuttering

These primary effects can then transform into various secondary effects:

  • inferiority complexes
  • insecurity
  • introversion
  • overcompensation through heightened performance
  • contrariness, oppositional and provocative manners, e.g. playing the class clown in school, behaving as a persistent, compulsive wise-cracker 
  • various distinctive disorders in behaviour
  • bed-wetting and nail-biting
  • emotional problems lasting into adulthood with neurotic and/or psycho-somatic symptoms disorders in the personality profile

The level of intelligence itself is not diminished, but its manifestation is often disturbed. As Dr Sattler points out: 'Of course, all of the primary and secondary difficulties identified could also appear without the converting of handedness and they are just as prevalent in left-handers as in right-handers. However, it has been found in practice that through the additional converting of handedness these difficulties are incalculably increased.'

At our centre, the diagnosis of handedness is carried out by an occupational therapist certified in the method of Dr Sattler.