Alice C Burnett, Peter J Anderson, Robert M Joseph, Elizabeth N Allred, T Michael O’Shea, Karl C K Kuban, Alan Leviton, ELGAN Study Investigators
J Pediatr. 2018 Jan 11. pii: S0022-3476(17)31612-8.
670 children (78%) were classified as right-handed, 49 (6%) had mixed preference, and 145 (17%) were left-handed. Left-handed children performed comparably to right-handed children on measures of cognition, academic, motor, and behavioral function, although at increased risk of poor visual processing and fine motor skill. In contrast, mixed-handed children had greater odds of deficits in verbal and nonverbal intellectual skills, attention, working memory, set-shifting, academic progress, and fine and gross motor skills than right-handed children. Behavior problems including autism spectrum disorder and ADHD were also more common in mixed-handed than right-handed children.