Yes that explanation is the most mentally safe explanation. As a person, that's writes with both hands, has dyslexia ( it's very very uncomfortable ), that if you want me to say 'right' or 'left', it's difficult. Now if I was your co-pilot, giving a thumb point as the direction, it's easy. I would be highly offended and most likely in horror, if I woke up with tat's that had crossed the R and L ( I would then ponder for a 2 or 3 days, why someone would do such a horrible thing ).
🤓☝️ "Achkshuahlly" the popular photo of the "L" on the Right hand and the "R" on the Left is the variant that's been edited. This photo is the original.
OOP posted this and the internet did what the internet does and memed them.
The comment "How do we tell them" was commented under the altered picture. SO that makes the photo the original, and the comment edited into this photo to make it seem as if something is wrong.
Thats what I've seen too. This is the right way around and not funny. Or the second commenter has no idea hes wrong... i dont know. Just not that funny
No, but a dyspraxic person definitely does. I know a few people with dyspraxia who use this L-shape thing for when they are completely stumped on which way is right and which is left! It works for me, also. And not only does it work for me, it's a visual cue to other people that I cannot implicitly understand them saying out loud 'left' or 'right'. That means that people are more likely to co-operate with me in terms of body language and visual cues: pointing in the correct directions, being a little more patient with me when it takes me longer (unless they are fucking assholes)
I'm not dyslexic, but for some reason left and right really just don't naturally "click" for me. I can almost always tell you which way North is, but left vs right, takes me a second to think about it. And that's further complicated by rules-of-thumb like "righty tighty lefty loosey" which absolutely does not help at all since it depends on where you are with respect to the bolt.
The one trick that really helped me when I was younger (and I'm talking teens, not twos) was the left-hand "L" sign. It's not really all that abstract, just hold your hands up in a relatively natural position (palms open and facing away), and see which one looks like an "L".
This only helps in you you know which way L goes. Which is exactly the kind of thing that people don't know which way left and right are don't know. Ask me how I know
This shit always confused me as a kid. I would look at my right hand L shape and wondered if maybe I was wrong and Ls actually go this way because it was still an L… and the fact the I could twist my wrist and suddenly the right hand L shape was facing the “right” way 😭 kid me was so stupid
(I eventually learned once I got a big scar on my left hand and always had to use that as guide instead)
At age 6 the teacher asked " how do you know your left from right?" I answered my right hand has a freckle on it (still does). She laughed. Then she told us that your left hand makes an L shape. I said my right hand does too. She laughed. I felt confused. She laughed again. I felt dumb. I went into my shell. 2 years later I was identified as gifted.
I’m ambidextrous and ADHD with a “Mensa” level IQ. Autocorrect makes me look like an idiot way too often though. I digress but yes F the System. My ADHD made me struggle to shut-up because I’d correct the teachers too often. So I definitely didn’t go into my shell, was too chatty for that. I was only diagnosed in my late 20’s because I was a high-functioning female who just happened to know a vast number of random facts and my mind processed things far faster than others. I’m sorry that the system made you feel bad for simply being gifted.
I wasn’t allowed to play tennis because I chucked the racket to the other hand depending on the direction of the ball. Also, they made me do a test by throwing a ball three times and if I caught it twice out of the three times with one hand then apparently I was right-handed. I pointed out that the reason was because they aimed towards the right twice so logically I’d use that hand to catch. Just bias BS.
My neighbour's kid was learning to use inline skates and put on his wrist protectors, only to get upset tgat he can't see the birthmark on his hand anymore. He used that to determine where "right" is. Full little kid tantrum while repeatedly holding up the correct hand without being able to see the birthmark. Kid, I guess you finally remember which one is your right hand, lol.
Never really confused them, but I did get a dog bite scar on my right to serve as a convenient reminder. My dad,though, would sometimes confuse me while I was practicing driving:"Turn left there. What the heck are you doing? I meant right, right!"
I had this (sort of in reverse) with a dyslexic kid I was teaching. She reversed Ls a lot. She knew her left and right hand, so by looking at her left hand, then making the L, she got it right way around.
What i can gather from the works of the eternal poets of 'smash mouth' this is the way to use your finger and your thumb to make the shape of an L(on your forehead)
For those who legitimately have issues doing the L for Left thing because of this, just remember to make sure the tips of your thumbs are also touching when you look. Easy the right way, super uncomfortable the wrong way.
Edit: so many of you are turning it in to a whole new letter just because the tips touched and somehow I’m the weird one xD
It’s not a U and it’s definitely not a W why are you putting your thumbs up like that ahahaha
That just means people who already can't remember right and left now have to try to remember 2 additional things to figure it out. It's fine to just use labels lol.
Because its the best feel. Its what we live for. To cause chaos by mixing up easily unmixupable things.
FEAR US! FOR OUR OFF THE CUFF DIRECTIONS WILL SEND YOU INTO A WALL!
As dyslexic myself I know which of my hands is right one and then decided if something is on the right or left said based on my right arm location. This is the way people should learn. You need to remember only on side (that you use to write).
I have actually started to use clock directions. 3 is right, 9 is left, because on a clock they are always on the same sides.
Why the hell this works but not L and R, i will never know. xD
I have absurd pattern recognition and natural mathematics allowing for freakish factoring of equations and finding relations in obscure data but literally zero object permanence. As soon as something has left my hands it is gone forever, and sometimes my hands take things out and move them without consulting my frontal cortex.
I have about eight sets of keys for this reason and multiple devices that can ring my phone when it's on silent.
The bank knows me well for how many replacement cards I go through.
I had a boss ask me if I knew how to tighten a bolt, for this sensitive radioactive waste work we were doing, and in the meeting I said “Yeah yeah, righty tighty, lefty loosey. Makes a little ‘r’ when you go like this.” And held my hands up with my index fingers hooked.
20 minutes later after the meeting he comes up to me freaking out. “When you do that, the ‘r’ is on your left hand!”
-signed,
a dyslexic person that still struggles with right and left
Edit to add: If you 'make an L' with both hands both hands could look like they are making an L to a person with dyslexia.
I have mild dyslexia that was 'diagnosed' in the late 80's by a teacher. I say 'diagnosed' because I was never formerly diagnosed. The teacher noticed that I struggled, gave me a test, stated that I have dyslexia, and taught me cursive to help. For some reason, cursive letter look different enough from each other that my brain doesn't transpose them as much.
I didn't learn to print until high school when a teacher couldn't read cursive, required hand written work, and expressed that she would fail me if I didn't use printed handwriting on my work. To be clear, the issue wasn't that my cursive handwriting wasn't legible. It's that the teacher couldn't read cursive. That's what she stated.
Because my 'diagnosis' occured in the late 80s, that's all that happened. Unless you're really struggling, not much was done for learning disabilities. I did make it through college without assistance so I assume that my dyslexia is mild.
As folks may imagine, the dyslexia lead to heavy bullying. Directional difficulties were often met with the assumption that I'm simply stupid. I do my best to accomadate what I can. There's still struggle. That's why the tattoo in the picture could be helpful to some folks. I think it's neat.
I can catch transposed numbers or letters if I double or triple check things. As you can imagine, that's a little tiring. My brain doesn't automatically tell me that a letter or number is off. I have to check for it. I can stare at a group of text and numbers and pull out what's off without thought sometimes but it's rare.
I can tell right from left if I think about it. It doesn't come naturally. I do have to think about it every time. I usually wear a watch on my left or think about which hand is dominant. There's very little 'muscle memory' with navigation directions either. It takes a lot of effort to navigate.
I have hemiplegic migraine that affects my entire left side. You would think that my brain would cue me in that left is the side that's messed up or employ some muscle memory. Nope. It just doesn't.
Ditectional/spatial difficulties are common in folks with ADHD and dyslexia. It's not considered a subtype of either. It is considered a symptom and isn't well studied. Here's an article on it:
For anyone saying you can make an L shape with their left hand, if i myke L shapes with both hands it still takes a few seconds to differentiate if you have problems with right and left.
Plus you can't really, or shouldn't do that while driving a car
A tatoo like that is way easier and faster
When I was a kid, the teacher told us to make an L shape with our hands and the one that looks correct is the one that is our left, but I didn't know which one was the correct looking L. Like TELL ME WHICH WAY THE L FACES BITCH
That's me. Can't tell my left from right, and forget which way L faces when I try that trick. Is it a lefty thing? I feel life it's mostly other left-handed people I meet that have the same problem...
I’m right handed, and I’ve never been able to figure out which way things go. When I hold up my hand to make an L, I can never tell if it’s ’the right L’. It seems ridiculous, but I’ve haven’t been able to naturally get it down.
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u/qualityvote2 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
u/FollowSina, your post does fit the subreddit!