Lateral preference and verbal skills: a survey in school settings

The relation among hand, foot and eye lateral preference indices and certain verbal ability tests was studied in a group of 497 elementary school children. According to the performance on the verbal ability tests, the original sample was divided into a Lower and an Upper Group, and percentages of left preferences, consistent right and left preferences, crossed hand-foot, hand-eye, foot-eye preferences and congruent preferences were compared. The only comparison that proved to be significant was the evidence of a lower left preference percentage in reading speed in the Upper Group as compared to the Lower Group. A similar series of comparisons between a subgroup (N = 14) of children with serious reading problems and the group as a whole, did not lead to significant results. We therefore conclude that at least for subjects regularly attending school, there is no relation among lateral preference and the above mentioned verbal skills.