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 🙈

I have found it to be the opposite, although not the point of the thread as the OP has pointed out.

I'm pretty much ambidextrous and I really struggle with distinguishing left and right. I've trained myself to treat right - the slightly dominant hand - as the go to and it's helped, I can even give directions now 🤣

By the way, I'm your woman in a rounders or cricket match. Catching stuff is my forte. But, in all seriousness, I wouldn't ask me for directions just after a match

I also can’t seem to walk in a straight line I always end up walking into the person I’m walking next to

I have real problems distinguishing left and right. My sister is the same and sat her driving test with the letters L and R written on the back of her hands.

I'm right handed, but can do almost everything, including writing legibly, with my left. I'm a teacher and when I injured my right hand, I just wrote on the board with my left. No problems reading or with multiplication tables, I can remember number strings easily, great sense of direction but clumsy as hell.

I can tell left from right, up from down and east from west but I just cannot get it in my head the number bonds 8+5 and 7+5. I just can’t get it to stay in my head! I literally have to count it out on my fingers!
Oh and I’m in my 50’s and have worked in a school 🙈

Easiest way to remember, near side = near the kerb

Left and Right. Is immediate some days and others I have to think really hard, lol

Times tables, 6 and 7’s are a mystery to me. Although I know 6x7=42 and so work forwards and backwards from that, luckily I’m very quick to add and subtract in my head.

Left hand is Lovely Sucky Thumb (more than half a century ago 🤣) and I write with my right. Time ahead is measured in telegraph poles of weekends stretching away into the distance. Hopeless at faces; better at recognising people by the way they walk. Can’t hold more than three directions in my head at any one time.

I was a genius at times tables. I’m double crap at maths, but could learn the “chanting” of the tables, which we did every day at school, really quickly.

Wow, I’m so surprised at the poll results so far (although it could be self selecting). More of us out there who struggle than I realised. I wonder why that is? Up/down and back/front are no problem - why are left and right so hard (and also east/west as others have mentioned)?

I’m left handed. I’m fine with right and left but have to work out east and west EVERY time. I can read a map and compass, navigate on land and water and could probably explain the differences between true and magnetic north if pushed; but east and west.. nope. Never Eat Shredded Wheat. Every. Single. Time.

I used to just pretend I was keeping up, kinda like 8 7s is blahdy blah.

I usually need to think for a second. I write with my right hand, that's my go-to when I need to determine left & right.

It’s a family joke that I have real difficulty telling my left from my right !
I think it’s because I’m left handed, and therefore I write ( right ….. get it ?) with my left hand, so I often have physically hold up my hand to work it out .
i think the fact write and right sound the same scrambles my brain !

I can only walk in a straight line after a drink...

I always have to think about left and right

Really struggle with left and right (my family have only just realised that I’m not doing this to be funny). I have to make an L shape to confirm which way is which. Weirdly I am very good at cardinal directions and map reading which no one who knows me can understand. I appear to instinctively know what direction north is. As far as I am aware I’m not neurodiverse although chronic dyslexia runs in my family (I’m not dyslexic).

Me: easily, instinctively (possibly something to do with doing dance and the like when little and then a lot of physio later which improved both my proprioception and awareness of muscles and joints) and can flip perspectives and positions in my head without conscious thought - I also have great spatial awareness for moving things around in three dimensions, size and planning processes from multiple competing factors. Technically, I'm ambidextrous, but physically favour my right since a cervical spine fracture (so I end up dragging the mouse over to the opposite side now I can't operate a trackball as accurately as I used to).

DP: On your left. Left. Your other left. That's your right. Left. LEFT. Turn back round and it's on your left. YOUR left. The hand you write with. Your fretting hand. No, the one you actually use, not the one people thought you should use but couldn't. LEFT. PUT YOUR LEFT HAND UP IN THE AIR. Oh, FFS, wait there <stomp stomp stomp> This is your left. Let me move your hand. THERE. ON YOUR LEFT.

And me to the list. Of course I know my left from my right, it just takes me a few seconds to process while others know instantly. I went the wrong way in my driving test but as I indicated and went the same way, I didn’t get penalised. I also have trouble with:
East and West
Clockwise/anticlockwise
People reading numbers or letters to me - I have to visualise them before I can write them down

There is autism, ADHD and slow processing in my family but I am not diagnosed. The problems come when someone else is giving me the information. If I was to think to myself which was left and right, I’d know quicker. Maybe a mixture of slow processing and pressure

Yes I automatically ‘know’ however my (very intelligent) husband and son both really struggle with left and right. Both are absolutely maths whizzes (which I am not), but also both have to work hard to remember spellings where I (and the other equally intelligent son) just know spellings.

One thing I found out last year was that I have aphantasia, which means I don’t have a minds eye as such, I can’t picture things, I can only see what’s in front of me. So if you asked me to describe my child I might list the things I know about him (black hair, brown eyes, brown skin, scar on cheek etc) but I can’t picture him at all so unless he’s in front of me and I’m looking at him I couldn’t give you any more detailed information. I assumed that was normal, but apparently it isn’t!

My husband is dyslexic and we wondered if his left and right issue was connected but the one boy who can’t do left and right either definitely isn’t dyslexic. I have lots of adhd traits (as does that son) but I don’t think either of us actually have adhd.

I don’t automatically know my left from right. I have to act out writing my name with a pen. My son finds it hilarious. I could never follow an aerobics or dance routine if the instructor was facing me and struggle with yoga. I also find it hard to find my way around new places.

I know my left and right instinctively, I thought everyone did until I met DH! It made me smile the first few times I noticed he really had to stop and consider which way was which, and when I eventually mentioned it to him, he told me that his Dad and sister were the same! DH's Mum and bothers are both "instinctive left or right" people, but I do wonder if there's an hereditary element, as DH and I share 2DDs, one of which has the "instinct", and the other does not.

Interesting question though!

OP I have found my person!
bar the times tables which I was able to memeorise (I was good at that), I am left handed, suspected some kind of ND (whether that’s ASD or ADHD I’m unsure), but I have always been very aware how much I really struggle with left and right. It’s like it just doesn’t stick in my brain no matter how hard I try!

I dunno if anyone else has this as well, but sometimes I get N and D mixed up in my mind. And maybe a little bit with M and B also.

I have autism and adhd and it was not knowing my left from right that flagged me for my mum to have me diagnosed xx

I have some autistic traits, but no diagnosis and I can't catch a ball easily, but I have no problem with left and right. I also have a good sense of direction, like there is an invisible compass in my head and put me in a strange place and I know which way is North straight away.

I immediately imagine both my left and the object's left, if you see what I mean? So someone will say: "turn on the left tap" and I then think: "MY left or the tap's left?", but I know they mean my left, so I get it right, but with a moment's pause. It is not instantaneous and automatic for me.