Professor Dr. Angelika Speck-Hamdan
We still are not living in a world where left-handedness is accepted as a matter of course. Parents still react with insecurity, whenever they discover signs that their child might prefer their left hand. The advice that these parents receive from their surrounding environment is not always progressive. It is not unusual today for the left-handed child, after enduring a painful process, to end up much worse off than they would have ever been before. The prevention of this lamentable state of affairs is the very purpose of this book. The information provided in this resource is given to provide support to left-handed children and their parents, as they former learn to write well left-handed.
Left-handed children can write just as beautifully, just as messily, just as quickly and just as slowly as their right-handed peers. Differences found in the ability of left-handed children to write are then a result of factors other than their handedness. In order to avoid these and other difficulties, it is of great importance to aid left-handed children in learning how to write properly. As a rule, left-handed children have few role modls for learning how to write properly. This means that they are forced to find their own way to write in a world that is primarily oriented for right-handers.
The writer of this book has not only been intensively involved in the scientific foundation and results of the research done in this area. She has also amassed considerable experience from her involvement in the counseling and treatment of the left-handed and converted left-handed respectively. With great enthusiasm and commitment, the author has also devoted decades of study to the issue of left-handedness and pedagogy. Again and again, I have been able to call upon her competence and experience, when I myself have wanted to bring the issue of left-handedness to the attention of university students. She has succeeded in increasing our collective awareness of the unique challenges faced by left-handed people, which have been disproportionately created by the prejudices against left-handedness. Many of the aides which she herself has developed to counteract this situation are presented here in this book.
It is my personal wish that this book reaches the hands of as many parents and teachers possible so that left-handedness will cease to play a role as a risk factor in the development of young people.
Professor Dr. Angelika Speck-Hamdan
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Munich, Germany
© Copyright: Professor Dr. Angelika Speck-Hamdan
Consulting and Information Center for Left-handers and Converted Left-handers
(Erste deutsche Beratungs- und Informationsstelle für Linkshänder und umgeschulte Linkshänder)
Sendlinger Str. 17, D – 80331 Munich (München), Germany / Europe, Tel./ Fax: +49 / 89 / 26 86 14
http://www.lefthander-consulting.org, e-mail: info@lefthander-consulting.org