Right-left orientation and writing hand in children referred for neurodevelopmental assessment

22 boys and 10 girls with school problems were referred to a pediatrician for medical and neurodevelopmental evaluation--children ranged in ages from 5-4 to 14-7. As part of the pediatric developmental assessment a simple test was used to evaluate each child's ability to identify his own right or left eye, ear, hand and foot. Hand preference for writing was also noted. 32 control children from the same population matched for age and sex with patients were also tested. Patients over 5 yr. old were more likely to have difficulty identifying right and left body parts than control children. All controls over age 7 correctly identified their body parts. 5 patients and 5 controls showed left-hand preference for writing. It is concluded that a more sensitive test for hand preference should be utilized as part of the pediatric neuro-developmental assessment.