Retraining left-handers and the aetiology of stuttering: the rise and fall of an intriguing theory

Laterality
Howard I Kushner

Abstract

Many twentieth-century British and American educators, psychologists, and psychiatrists advocated forcing left-handed children to write with their right hands. These experts asserted that a child's decision to rely on his or her left hand was a reflection of a defiant personality that could best be corrected by forcible switching. The methods used to retrain left-handers were often tortuous, including restraining a resistant child's left hand. In contrast, those who saw left-handedness as inherited, but natural, not only disapproved of forced switching, but also often warned of its putative negative consequences, especially stuttering. These claims were given credence in the 1930s by influential University of Iowa researchers, including psychiatrist S. T. Orton, psychologist L. E. Travis, and their students. From the late 1920s until the 1950s, the Iowa researchers published articles and books connecting the etiology of stuttering to forcing natural left-handers to write and perform other tasks with their right hand. Based on their clinical studies these practitioners concluded that stutterers displayed weak laterality. The Iowa group also published detailed case studies of patients whose stuttering was putatively cured by the ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 28, 2014·PLoS Biology·Michael C Corballis
Oct 27, 2014·Brain Structure & Function·Vered Kronfeld-DueniasMichal Ben-Shachar
Feb 5, 2013·Endeavour·Howard I Kushner
May 18, 2016·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Vered Kronfeld-DueniasMichal Ben-Shachar
Jan 17, 2015·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Metten SomersIris E Sommer
Dec 3, 2014·Early Human Development·Christian MontagMartin Reuter
Dec 31, 2016·Human Brain Mapping·Jay DesaiBradley S Peterson
Apr 24, 2017·Research in Developmental Disabilities·Eunice N SimõesSergio L Schmidt
Nov 5, 2017·Progress in Neurobiology·Judith SchmitzSebastian Ocklenburg
Sep 16, 2019·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Alexandre Jehan MarcoriVictor Hugo Alves Okazaki

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