Some great websites for more information about left-handedness:

Rosemary West’s Left-Handed page

“Your left hand, your right hand, and both sides of your brain.”

Fun facts, resources, book reviews, frequently asked questions, and a lively forum for left-handers worldwide - Something for everyone here.  A very informative website for left-handers and parents who have lefty kids.

Gauche - Comments and Lefty Tips

The objective of this website is to communicate accurate information and simple coping strategies pertinent to left-handers living in a right-biased society.  This site is collaboratively built and it incorporates comments from left-handers worldwide.

About 50 Frequently Asked Questions re left-handedness….

Archived material.  This is not a visually attractive site but a lot of information that has been built up collaboratively over many years can be found here.  Copyright 1995 - 2000 by Barry D. Benowitz.  Use and copying of this information is permitted as long as (1) no fees or compensation are charged for use, copies or access to this information, and (2) this copyright notice is included intact.

Famous Left-Handers

Great long list of famous lefties - Presidents, musicians, sport’s people and more!

For a long list of left-handed artists - The list includes Rembrandt the Dutch Painter, Engraver and Draftsman; and Raphael.  Raphael along with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, is considered one of the three Great Names of the High Renaissance in Italy. (Raphael and Leonardo - both lefties and Michelangelo ambidextrous.)

Are left-handers quicker thinkers than righties?

This article says they are!!

What Makes a Lefty: Myths and Mysteries Persist

By Corey Binns - Special to Live Science.  Click this link if you would like to view pictures of a counter clockwise and a clockwise hair whorl.  Apparently one-half of people with counter clockwise whorls are left-handed, but only a small percentage of people with a clockwise whorl are left-handed..... Can openers, scissors and spiral-bound notebooks discriminate against lefties. Despite such challenges, 10 to 12 percent of the human population has historically preferred the left hand.

Some general interest topics for left-handers

Resources for parents and teachers:

Good reading for both parents and educators

A page with some good advice and information for parents with left-handed children - how parents can help their left-handed child in daily life.  The most common and serious problems left-handers face at school. 

Left-handers at school - how teachers can help….

A good article especially for teachers about the difficulties left-handed children face at school and how teachers can help and support them.

Handwriting - how lefties should position the paper….

Coaching ergonomics - a very clear explanation with animated illustrations about how lefties write and how they should position their paper.  Good, informative page for both parents and teachers - how left-handers should sit, write and position their paper.

Paper and scissor craft activities

Great website full of resources for young children to develop fine motor skills by colouring in and cutting things out.

Correct techniques for teaching left-handed children how to write,

draw and colour in

If your left-handed child learns differently or you think there may be issues such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADD, ADHD, autism etc - then the websites below will be of great interest to you. 

If you live in New Zealand, SPELD has been in operation for 30 years supporting those who learn differently.

SPELD NZ, the Specific Learning Disabilities Federation, has 29 member associations nationwide.  This not-for-profit organisation was set up in 1971 to help children who were not realising their educational potential because of various specific learning disabilities - these are children who learn differently.  Parents and SPELD tutors provide assistance to people of all ages with learning problems, notably dyslexia.  Other conditions include dyscalculia, dyspraxia, aphasia, attention deficits (ADD and ADHD) and various degrees of autism.

If your child has/may have an Attention and Learning Difficulties...

The Learning and Behaviour Charitable Trust NZ Website is full of useful information.

The term "learning difficulties" means a disorder in one or more of the basic processes involved in understanding spoken or written language. Put another way, it impedes the ability to store, process or produce information. It may show up as a problem in a persons ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do maths despite having at least average intelligence.

Study Guides and strategies for those with ADHD

For a little light relief and fun you’ll enjoy this video of a hyperactive ladybird...a young ladybird with ADHD!  I love it!! (I found it one day on StumbleUpon - see below!)

For a whole bunch of freebies - Dyslexia & Special Learning Difficulties and to sign up for "Real Special Ltds" free monthly newsletter.

Dyslexia Parent’s Resource - Information and resources for parents with a child suffering from dyslexia.

To read a good article about the symptoms of dyslexia

A Website for adults with dyslexia

If your child has Asperger's Syndrome please visit the Cloud 9 Children's

Foundation New Zealand for a wealth of useful information and a long list of Asperger Links.

Other useful website references dealing with specific interests:

Left-handed GOLF:

This website has been on the internet for many years and it only caters for left-handed golfers!

Crochet and Knitting:

How to crochet left-handed.  Good diagrams and in colour!

Knitting from a left-hander’s perspective.

Fun websites about being left-handed.

You Tube video….Left-Handed Discrimination

General - New Zealand and other...

FindA

This is a great website and very useful for finding businesses and various items if you live in New Zealand.  Their site search works well and often there is a handy map (provided by Wises) of how to get to the business concerned. 

Their slogan is: “You search, we find!”

Stumble Upon

A little while ago I added a “StumbleUpon” toolbar to my computer and whenever I have a little time I go and do some ‘stumbling’!  Basically, the idea is that you tell Stumble Upon a little about the sorts of things that interest you - your hobbies, computers, website development - or whatever your interests are and then when you press the “Stumble” button on their toolbar you will be presented with websites, images, videos etc in line with the interests you chose.  You can choose to ‘stumble’ only images, or only websites.   It is amazing and it will surprise you!!  You’ll get to see all sorts of things on the internet that you would never even have known to search for using Google or whichever search engine you use.  (By the way, you can, as I did, tell Stumble Upon that you don’t want any porno or offensive type sites and it has never sent any of these my way, thank goodness.)  You can also give a ‘thumbs up’ to things you’ve liked on Stumble or a ‘thumbs down’!  It’s a pretty neat concept.  Overall I give “Stumble Upon” the thumbs up for a fun and novel idea!!

Their slogan: StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.

What others have said about StumbleUpon:

"Next time you want to wander the Web, forget about Googling it. Stumble it." (from The Wall Street Journal)

"StumbleUpon is a brilliant downloadable toolbar that beds into your browser and gives you the chance to surf through thousands of excellent pages that have been stumbled upon by other web-users" (BBC World)

Keep an eye on this page and bookmark it

as we add more useful links to it often!!