Right-left discrimination skills of hemiplegic persons of limited intelligence

Past research has indicated a relationship between degree of unilateral usage of body parts and right-left discrimination skills. Further evidence for such an association was sought by comparing the scores of hemiplegic persons of limited intelligence on a test of rather advanced righ-left discrimination skills devised by the authors to those earned by a control group of non-hemiplegic persons matched on the variables of age, sex, race, and IQ. Mean scores of the hemiplegic group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Seventeen out of 21 hemiplegic persons scored higher than their matched controls. Results are discussed in terms of a possible causal relationship between perceived visual and kinesthetic differences between the right and left sides of one's own body and right-left discrimination in external space. Lesser degrees of inter-hemispheric communication among hemiplegic persons also are mentioned as a possible causal factor.