Can you tell your left from your right?

[TeaAndCakeMakeThingsBetter]

Had a random conversation yesterday where a friend and I discovered that neither of us instinctively knew our left from our right. It was part of a conversation around neurodiversity and it got me wondering whether it’s just a random blip in our brains or part of something wider. So - do you just KNOW left from right or does it not come automatically? I also struggled at school with random bits of timetables (6/7/8s - could never remember the ones where the answers were somewhere between 40 and 50, but had absolutely no problem with maths overall and got straight As st GCSE. That’s not a boast, more just that it wasn’t linked to academic intelligence!). Am also left handed if that’s relevant (but still have to consciously think about which hand I write with if asked 🙈).

YABU- duh, obviously I can tell left from right 🙄
YANBU - No! I have to really think about which is which 🙈

Both my teen DC are autistic. One has excellent spatial awareness and a fantastic sense of direction. The other doesn't know left from right and couldn't direct you to our house from two minutes down the road.

I have no problem with knowing left and right, however if someone asks me to order things from 'lowest to highest' I do have to take a minute to think this through first.

Yes nearly 50 and find this and don’t know left from right. I also get mixed up with the number 11 and 12. I work booking appointments all the time and have to use noon instead. It’s hard to explain.

I don’t want them to move. I want them to keep in a straight line but to know I’m wanting to pass and not suddenly leap to the side which they might do if they don’t know I’m there 😁.

The hit in the times tables where there are lots of 6s, 7s and 8s is genuinely just the hardest part though so I wouldn’t read too much into that. I still have to think by twice at 6 x7 and 7 x 8 and I loved maths.

Thanks, yes I've heard that one before but I'm afraid I still don't get it!

Just on the subject of left and right again, I realised years ago (because my husband is very bad at it) that I'm good at map reading and then translating that 2D thing into a 3D thing in my head. I am good at knowing which way to go, even if I can't always actually remember it's called 'Left' or 'right' if that makes sense.

In our family it’s perfectly acceptable to be giving directions in the car by saying …

take the next left, shit, I meant the other left .. 🙄

but there’s not a single normie in the family so we may not be typical.

I can’t and I always have to say to myself you write with your right hand that’s the only way I can do it, because if this I struggle with directions and giving them, always had this from being a child and I don’t think there’s any other way I could have fix this now. It’s something I have to think about everytime, it’s like my brain won’t retain it.

What is it that you don’t get? In spring the clocks ‘spring’ one hour forward, in fall/autumn, they ‘fall’ one hour back. I don’t think there’s anything to get.

Oh oh! Another thing I can do, is I can imagine complicated 3D objects in my head and zoom in and out of them and rotate them. Like Rubik's cubes with the colours or multi-sided objects like prisms and dodecahedrons and what have you.

I never realised other people couldn't always do this!

Your left index finger and thumb make a capital L.

Me too

Yeah, I know it's not easy to understand what I mean, I've spoken to lots of people about it over the years and they never really understand what it is that I find hard about it.

I get the concept that we remove or add in a phantom hour, I just can't get my head around whether that means we 'lose' or 'gain', and what time it will be in the morning when I wake up. Sorry I can't really explain it better than that - I've given up trying to work out out. It's easier now we have phones that auto-adjust. I just look at my phone and think 'oh it's 7am, fine, I'll get up then'.

At the risk of getting a kicking, I think there may be a male/female thing here too.

in my experience a fair proportion of the women in my life struggle with left and right and none of the men do.

My problem is that I also can't tell the difference between a L and a backwards L. 😂

My husband can’t. I find it annoying, especially when he’s driving.

Having learnt it as a small child, I have no more difficulty with it than knowing up from down.

I do struggle though to read maps unless they are orientated in the direction I am looking, or to match up photos with plans (eg looking at a floor plan of a house and matching it to a photograph of a room) so I guess I understand the difficulty a bit.

Yes. Instinctively. Never had a problem. My arithmetic however, yikes.

I know my own left and tight but sometimes get muddled when I have to suddenly tell someone opposite me what their left or right is. I have ADHD.

I always point in the direction I mean, but get the word wrong about 50% of the time.

Apparently I turned left rather than right during my (successful) driving test, but I did it correctly, so the examiner just told me afterwards with a chuckle.

I know my times tables up to 12, am good at geometry and statistics, but shit at algebra.

I have found my people! I honestly thought it was just me.Helen Sharman( first British woman in space) also said she had trouble with this as well.The other day in the supermarket, a little boy said he wasnt sure .His mum admonished him saying "Really you dont know" sounding shocked

I have to think about it

I feel for my wedding ring though I have been divorced for over 25 years and not worn the ring since my divorce and wa dinky married for three years

it just reminds me for some odd reason by doing this

I’m autistic and I instinctively know left from right. My adult dd has adhd and has to think about it

I always have to imagine writing and actually press my fingers together as if I was holding a pen and think ‘write = right’. Otherwise I would not know my left or right instinctively.

There's always one...