Ambidextrous children are twice as likely to do badly at school and suffer from attention problems as right-handers, a study published yesterday shows. Researchers from Imperial College London tested 7,871 children’s language, behaviour and academic skills at the ages of seven or eight and again at 15 or 16.
They asked the children’s teachers to assess whether they were below average, average or above average in reading, writing and mathematics. The research found that the 87 who were ambidextrous were twice as likely to have language difficulties and perform poorly at school aged seven or eight.
By 15 and 16 they were twice as likely to have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder – which affects up to 5% of children – and to continue to have more language problems than their right-handed peers.
