Harry Houdini, Leonardo da Vinci, Robert Baden-Powell, Benjamin Franklin and Johnny Wilkinson were (or are) all ambidextrous, defined as being able to use both hands with equal facility. But a study this week found that "mixed-handed" children are twice as likely to suffer from attention problems at school as right-handers, while earlier research has associated the condition – which is often, but not always inherited – with autism and dyslexia. Here the ambidextrous mother of two ambidextrous daughters relates her experience:
"I'm 64 now, and as long as I can remember I have used both hands for everything. I had perfectly equal strength on both sides; I used to do a lot of ballet and I was as strong on one leg as the other. But of course things were very different then. At school I was always just 'cack-handed' and 'stupid'. It was awful; you knew you were always going to be in trouble. I was teased all the time. The nuns at the convent used to force me to write with my left hand held behind my back, and if I didn't they would tie it in that position. I was 20 by the time I was diagnosed as dyslexic; I had never even heard the word before. It didn't make things any better, of course, but it did help me understand myself.
"With my daughters, it wasn't the same. We knew with the elder one when she was three. Her playgroup said they wanted her assessed. She is ambidextrous, although she writes mainly with her right hand, and is very severely dyslexic. But she had some brilliant specialist teachers and went on to study classics at Oxford. My younger daughter is also dominant right-handed (most ambidextrous people favour one hand).
"Nobody in this family is allowed to use the words 'thick' or 'stupid'. Being ambidextous isn't all bad. It can be really useful: I used to do a lot of sculpting when I was younger and it made that a lot easier. For lots and lots of tasks it's really useful; other people have to stop because their hand is getting tired. We can just switch hands."