Saturday, February 08, 2014

Daniel, Language, Handedness

Today Daniel picked up a pen and wrote with his left hand. I am left-handed, so there is a certain heightened probability each of my children would be left-handed, meaning this shouldn't be all that surprising. Except for the fact that until recently, Daniel had been writing with his right hand.

Daniel is also autistic, and there is increasing evidence that many of the neural wiring differences are located in the left hemisphere, where language and social processing is typically located. An MRI of Temple Grandin's brain also shows the extent of this difference, as discussed in an article in Discover Magazine. Among the differences is a larger corpus collosum, which allows for increased communication across the hemispheres.

At may be possible that Daniel's brain is rewiring the right hemisphere for language and, as it is doing so, causing Daniel's dominant hand to switch from right to left. Certainly nobody is encouraging him to switch hands from right to left. If his brain is rewiring his language onto the right hemisphere, that would explain his language delay and why his language seems to be developing much better now.

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