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 🙈

Honestly, most of us don't have to think about it at all, any more than we have to think about the difference between up and down. People who do are in the minority. I know it can't be literally instinctive, in that we learnt it at some point, but that was so far back we don't remember. I mean, I don't remember being taught my name either. But I never have to think about it.

Depends how you define thinking about it.

If you feel like you don't think about it, it's because you are thinking about it at a subconscious level. Yes at some level your brain processes it, but you don't know it is processing it, you just know left and right.

If you think about it, have to hold thumb and forefinger up (or some other method), then your conscious processes are operating, which are much slower.

I always turned the map round if we were travelling North to South.

Not so much if an issue now, with sat nav.

Tbh until your comment it hadnt occurred to me I sit on the right side of the car. But I do.

It might be more muscle memory than instinct. I just dont consciously think about it.

I mean in a car I dont have an awareness of thinking about which way is left. But outside of driving, I struggle to "know" left from right and the harder I try to think which way is left the longer it takes me to work it out

OH doesnt know his right and left and its quite dangerous at times in the car. He is without doubt ND not diagnosed and very strong dyslexic traits.

I have to think about left and right, it's not instinctive. In my only 3 driving lessons I wrote L and R on my hands to be sure. The instructor looked terrified.
I tend to point rather than say left and right.
I can't do my 3s, 7s or 8 times table.
I get to and past muddled up when telling the time.
I don't walk in straight lines and drive dh up the wall
I have to turn a map in the direction of travel in order to read it.
I can't walk through a door frame without hitting it.
I also struggle with necessary ( cheers spell check) and sign.( cheers again)

For a long time the 'L' trick didn't help me. I'd just think 'but which way does the L go?'. It could be either.
When I was learning to write I would get letters round the wrong way, and even occasionally wrote whole paragraphs from right to left.

That worked itself out by 7 or so though, and I never struggled to read. Telling time was fine if the numbers were on the clock but impossible if just looking at the shape of the hands. Also fine now.

These days I think 'which way would I read that' and that mostly works, but recently got caught out because the gears on my bike went 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 rather than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and told my child to cycle on the wrong side of the path. 😣DP corrected.

Giving directions as navigator abroad similarly difficult, as I think of left as the side of the road we're on, rather than actual left.

Left handed, good academic results, professional qualification, no problems with tables.

As far as I know not ND, though, like many, I sometimes wonder.

Necessary is one collar and two socks 🙂

Ive also been confused by holding up my hand to make the L shape and figure which ‘L’ was the correct way round. I have to pretend to write something and then it’s ok 😂

I would instantly know 7x6 but would have to think about 6x7

@Rowgtfc72ita been proven that people who turn the map make better navigators

Sometimes, but sometimes I have to look at my hands to see which finger and thumb make the L 😂

Same here, i have difficulty setting the table. I quite often have the cutlery mixed up.
i was aware one day that i gave directions to workmen that they had to turn left when they asked for directions. I told them to go into a no entry. Im not sure if they realised in time.

I can only do left and right when I physically draw a letter a in the air with my hands and realise which one is right. I can do north-south-west-east OK if I'm somewhere I know and can orient myself based on where the railway is. General sense of direction are awful though, I once got lost going round a corner and backtracking. Also poor sense of balance.

I can do the numbers OK though.

Can't tie a knot or thread a needle. And bad at recognising faces.

I’m left handed, so I think I instinctively know because of that

I can’t do it instinctively. I have to pretend I’m picking up a pen, I have to do the actual hand movements and pick up and write with an imaginary pen. Which ever hand goes for the imaginary pen is my right hand side. 😂

I don't understand the question 😆

Do you mean if someone says stand on your right you don't instinctively know which way that is?

No I really have to think hard, and even then sometimes get it wrong.
I'm ambidextrous though which doesn't help.

I do exactly this! I struggle massively with it and will confidently say the wrong one quite often. My daughter is the same and I've recently been taking her out for driving lessons, it's been interesting to say the least cos neither of us know which direction we're talking about 😂

I always think with left and right (as opposed to up and down) it can switch, like if you look at a photo your right hand is on the left side of the image but up is still up. Another one that got me was if you say something is on your left but then you turn 180, it's now on your right, but again up is still up whichever way you turn.

YANBU
I literally have to wave my left and right hands to get it right 🤣🤣
There are lots of us about!!

A tip for East and West which my DM taught me was that Left pretty much rhymes with West.

Had to write L and R on my thumbs for my driving test. I mix up numbers a lot - 724 becomes 427 for example. Really struggled with times tables and number patterns like phone numbers or registration too. Maps are so confusing. On google maps I move in wrong direction all the time.

I am the only one in the house that doesn't get muddled with left and right.
The other two are both dyslexic.One is left handed. The other is predominantly right handed, but can do a few things with tthe left uite well too.
When going anywhere unfamiliar, I am tthe ne that navigates, otherwise I might get told to go left instead of right.
Once in the left of three lanes, indicating left, there isn't much I can do when I am told " not that left, the other left", other than turn left, and gind somewhere to turn around. When I navigate and say left and right, if needed I also say which exit on a roundabout, or to me/to you. 😃

That's interesting. DP really struggles with reading, and sometimes transposes numbers. I have always assumed he must be dyslexic, but he is in his mid-seventies, so dyslexia wasn't really a 'thing' when he was at school. He struggles with his left and right, despite me telling him the way to remember it is, "You write with your right hand".