11 Facts About the Ambidextrous | Mental Floss 11 Facts About the Ambidextrous iStock Like us on Facebook 1. If you can write equally well with either hand, then you are the one percent . Even among the small population of ‘multi-handed’ individuals, very few experience equal ease and skill with both hands. In comparison, around 10% of people are lefties. 2. Right-, left- and mixed-handedness aren’t sufficient to define the preferences of most people, according to experts. Most people experience some level of cross-dominance — favoring one hand for certain tasks, even if it’s the non-dominant one — and among the group of people who use both hands, there are even finer distinctions. Ambidextral refers to those who can use both hands as well as a right-hander’s right hand (so, really well), and ambisinistral can be used to describe people who use both hands as well as a right-hander’s left hand (that is, somewhat clumsily). 3. Unlike righties, who show strong left brain dominance, the hemispheres of ambidextrous and left-handed people’s brains are almost symmetric... 4. ...

as is the typical brain of a person with synesthesia, or “mixed senses,” who experiences cross-sensory perception. Among synesthetes, the instance of ambidexterity (and left-handedness) is much higher than in the general population. 5. The ambidextrous are more likely to possess the LRRTM1 gene (on chromosome 2), which is linked to schizophrenia. Studies reveal that people with schizophrenia are significantly more likely to be ambidextrous or left-handed than people who are not schizophrenic. 6. Another study, conducted through the BBC Science website, shows that of the one percent of 255,000 respondents who indicated equal ease writing with both hands, 9.2% of men and 15.6% of women reported being bisexual . In the same study, 4% of right-handed and 4.5% of left-handed men, and 6.2% of right-handed and 6.3% of left-handed women said they’re attracted to both sexes. 7. People who identify as ‘either-handed’ score slightly lower overall in general intelligence testing, and most often those scores are lower in arithmetic, memory and reasoning... 8. ...

except when they aren’t. A study of 8000 children ages 7 and 8 shows that the 87 mixed-handed students had more pronounced difficulties in language skills, and at ages 15 and 16, the same students showed a higher risk of ADHD symptoms and performed academically under both right- and left-handed students from the same sample. 9. Ambis can be quick to anger, according to a study from Merrimack College, which suggests a higher interlinking of brain hemispheres found in ambidextrous and lefties. A follow-up study found that the increased hemisphere connections correlate to increased awkwardness, clumsiness and moodiness. 10. But inconsistent-handers can also be easier to sway emotionally . Montclair State University tested a group of right- left and either-handers for emotional stability. Their findings report that of the group, righties were hardest to coerce, and ambis were most likely to report a change in mood based on their surroundings, directed thought, and music. 11. It’s not all bad news for the handedness-ambivalent, though.

Being able to use both hands with (almost) equal ease can really pay off, especially in sports, arts and music. Some reportedly cross-dominant celebrities and historic figures include Leonardo da Vinci, Pete Rose, Richard Feynmen, pitcher Greg A. Harris, Michelle Kwan, Shigeru Miyamoto, Paul McCartney, Benjamin Franklin and Harry Truman. ambidextrous - definition and meaning ambidextrous from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition adj. Able to use both hands with equal facility. adj. Unusually skillful; adroit. adj. Deceptive or hypocritical. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License adj. Having equal ability in both hands; in particular, able to write equally well with both hands. adj. Practising or siding with both parties. adj. Of a person, bisexual. from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English adj. Having the faculty of using both hands with equal ease. adj. Practicing or siding with both parties. from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia Having the faculty of using both hands with equal ease and dexterity; hence, skilful; facile.

Practising or siding with both parties; double-dealing; deceitful. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. adj. equally skillful with each hand adj. marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another Etymologies from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition Alteration of archaic ambidexter, from Middle English, double dealer, from Medieval Latin : Latin ambi-, on both sides; see ambi- + Latin dexter, right-handed. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License ambi- + Latin dexter ("right") + -ous (as if both hands are like the right hand, which is the stronger hand in most people). How to Become Ambidextrous | eHow How to Become Ambidextrous By eHow Sports & Fitness Editor eHow Contributor  Email Save A person who can use both hands equally well is considered to be ambidextrous. Although people generally have a dominant hand preference, a person who practices can become ambidextrous.

Learn how to use techniques to teach yourself to become ambidextrous. Use your opposite hand to write. Practice printing letters and numbers and when you've made improvement, attempt handwriting. Focus on angling the letters in the correct direction and using a smooth stroke to avoid a "shaky" look. Perform simple daily tasks with your opposing hand. When eating, cut food using your non-dominant hand. Pick up drinks, use scissors or other tools and apply makeup with your opposite hand. Exercise regularly, focusing on your opposite hand when lifting weights. An improvement in the strength of that hand encourages regular use and improves balance. Test yourself to see if you've become ambidextrous. Write the same sentence using both hands and observe if any differences exist. If you can't tell the samples apart, consider yourself to be ambidextrous. If the samples vary considerably, more practice is needed. Tips & Warnings If you have a hard time not using your dominant hand, try tying it behind your back to force your other hand to work for you. Remember that even people who are ambidextrous have a dominant hand, so a tendency to use your dominant hand remains.

Don't attempt to perform with the opposite side of the body when safety is an issue. Driving using the opposite foot, for instance, can cause confusion and an accident could occur. 3 Ways to Become Ambidextrous - wikiHow Writing and Drawing 1 Start writing and/or drawing with both hands. Pin down some paper and start drawing butterflies, vases, symmetrical objects, letters, shapes, and whatnot. Although your writing will be awful at first, write a couple of lines every day from the start. In this illustration, the two handed drawing technique "Hand Mirroring" is being used by the artist. 2 Write with your opposite hand. It is possible to write with your non-dominant hand –– it takes nothing more than practice and determination. Your hand may start to strain at the beginning, but just take a break and try again later. The tension will eventually go away. Use a pen that flows easily, to aid in writing. Also, some good quality paper helps to make the experience more enjoyable. Do not "claw" your hand. It may be tempting to grasp the pencil as tightly as possible, causing your hand to ball up like a claw, but this will only stop you from writing effectively and can end up hurting.

Take note of how your hand is positioned and loosen it up every now and then as you write. 3 Practice writing with your non-dominant hand for a long period of time to get used to it. Every day, write out the alphabet using your non-dominant hand in lowercase, uppercase and cursive (if you know how). At first your hand will be shaky and the letters won't be nearly as neat as your other hand's but keep practicing and your writing will start to get better. If you're a leftie (a left-handed person) attempting to write with your right hand, turn the page 30 degrees counterclockwise. If you're a rightie (a right-handed person) attempting to write with your left hand, turn the page 30 degrees clockwise. 4 Write with your good hand in the mirror to see how it would look writing with your other hand. This gives you a clear visual cue to the method and helps your brain to picture the same action for your non-dominant hand. 5 Follow useful exercises. For example: Use your opposite hand to write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The lazy dog decides to wake up and be non-lazy.", or similar sentences for practice.

(The sentence suggested is a good one for practice because it is a pan-gram, meaning that it's a phrase that contains all of the letters of the English alphabet.) Another way: Find a small paragraph and practice writing the paragraph over and over again. Also, look at the difference in the writings, and see which letter you need to get better at. 6 Write Zig-Zag/Like a DotMatrix. To take this all to the next level, write from left-to-right (normal direction) with your right hand, and from right-to-left with your left, writing backwards sentences that look correct when held up to a mirror. (This is called boustrophedon .) This is useful because righties are used to writing "from thumb to pinkie", and may write more naturally with their left hand while writing backwards. 7 Practice these techniques daily for at least a month, maybe longer. Soon, you'll be writing as fluently with your non-dominant hand, with very few mistakes. Method Strength building 1 Strengthen your non-dominant hand. Try lifting weights with your opposite hand to help strengthen the muscles. Start with light weights and as you get stronger, use heavier and heavier ones.

Method Other activities 1 Do everything with your non-dominant hand. Even if you only care about becoming ambidextrous for a specific task, it's still better to use your non-dominant hand for everything because skill of the other tasks in your non-dominant hand will partly transfer to the skill of that task, making it faster and less frustrating. Use your non-dominant hand all the time for each task, not half the time. If your goal is to get the highest efficiency at completing a task with either hand, then it's pretty useless to make your dominant hand even more skilled and is more important to focus your attention on gaining skill in your non-dominant hand. Another reason not to use your dominant hand at all is, that although using your dominant hand can't remove skill from your non-dominant hand, not using your dominant hand will lower it's skill and make it feel like less of a nuisance to use your non-dominant hand. 2 Try cooking with your opposite hand. Mix the eggs or the cake mix with your weaker hand. Stir or beat with a whisk using the same writing motion you'd use for that hand if doing cursive. 3 Perform simple tasks with your non-dominant hand.

Where you usually brush your teeth, eat with a spoon, smash meat with a tenderizing hammer, or bounce a ball with your dominant hand, try doing those things with your non-dominant hand. There are hundreds of simple tasks that you perform every day, so getting good at doing those with your other hand will help you become more ambidextrous. 4 Start doing fine motor tasks such as mirror writing, playing pool, and cutting cords out of shrimp with your non-dominant hand once you have practiced with simpler tasks. Doing this will also help you to practice the general skill of automatically transferring skill from an action to its mirror image, so that the next task you start doing with your non-dominant hand will be a tiny bit more skilled at doing it with your non-dominant hand than when you first started. The ability to transfer a skill from an action to its mirror image also gets built up each time you do a task with the opposite hand. You can also skip the first 3 steps if you want to hurry to become ambidextrous and can't handle the boredom of completing these tasks more slowly at first. 5 Keep using just your non-dominant hand for all complex, non dangerous tasks.

Once you do this, your originally non-dominant hand will exceed your originally dominant one in skill level. If you were to instead start by using both hands, one would catch up to the other in skill level and you would start to drift back to being having a slight bit of the dominance you originally had. This would happen because the muscle memory in your originally non-dominant hand will be a shorter term memory than that of your originally dominant hand. 6 Learn juggling. Try starting with three and four balls. This is a great way to train your weaker arm. 7 Play an instrument that involves two hands. For example, learn the piano, flute, guitar, saxophone, etc. This can help strengthen your weaker arm and give you greater dexterity in both hands and arms. In piano, however, the main parts are given to your right hand, and it will only make your right hand stronger Community Q&A How about if I want to be ambidextrous and always use my left hand to do everything, will my right hand skills be decreased? wikiHow Contributor How long does it take to become ambidextrous?

wikiHow Contributor If you practice daily, it will take around 2-3 months for your nondominant hand to learn to write as well as your dominant hand. Are people born ambidextrous or is it learned? wikiHow Contributor Being ambidextrous is a talent that a person is born with. However, it is also a skill that you can learn, albeit with some effort and possibly not as ably as someone who has the skill innately. Just remember, it can be done and no one is born a star. What are the main advantages of being ambidextrous? wikiHow Contributor The main advantages of being ambidextrous revolve around writing. If you broke your arm and then tried to write with your "unusual arm" then it will be hard for people who are righty or lefty. If you are ambidextrous, it will be easier for you to write with both hands if you injure one of them. You could also manipulate more tools from any angle, and potentially be more helpful wherever two hands are better than one. Can I become ambidextrous in a few weeks? wikiHow Contributor It depends on how long you practice using your non-dominant hand.

If you do it every day for hours, you may be able to become ambidextrous in that short amount of time. I can do everything with my left hand except write. What to do? wikiHow Contributor Practice writing. It's one of the hardest things to master, as it involves more minute and controlled motions than most other activities. If you practice regularly, you will eventually get there. How long does this process usually take? wikiHow Contributor It really depends on how long and how hard you are trying to be ambidextrous. If you are practicing daily, then it shouldn't be more than a few solid months. In kindergarten, I trained myself to become a righty. How do I get my lefty back? wikiHow Contributor Can practicing to be ambidextrous, cause brain damages, or something like that? wikiHow Contributor If this question (or a similar one) is answered twice in this section, please click here to let us know. Tips Stay patient, take it slow, and have fun. You'll get it. If you wish to advance quickly, try just writing a paragraph (left-to-right) each day with your non-dominant hand. After one or two weeks, you should see great improvement.

Remember: Rome wasn't built in a day, but no nation has benefited from a hundred-year's war. Don't expect to have perfect writing in a week of practice with your non-dominant hand; remember, it took you longer than a week to perfect pen control with your dominant hand! Buying a handwriting book designed for children and following along with the exercises can help. Try writing with your opposite hand every day for 15 minutes a day. Later, after practice, try writing with both hands and see how it works out! If your non-dominant hand is weak and you want to use it with tools or for heavy activities, pick up a couple large Chinese Stress Balls (they need to be the big ones), and try to exercise your hand and fingers. This way, when you're on the phone, mousing, etc. you will eventually get to the point where you can fluidly spin the balls in your palm without them touching. Mirror your activities: Do things clockwise and counter-clockwise simultaneously. You could also try playing sports with the other, weaker hand if the sport is easy for you with the strong hand. Another great way to practice is by painting your nails.

Try squeezing a plastic grocery bag filled with ice if your opposite hand twitches or you feel the desire to shake it out. Bouncing balls up and down to help build coordination in your non-dominant hand. When you're taking notes at school or work, use your non-dominant hand. Don't keep writing the same paragraph every day. Write a different one every day so your non-dominant hand doesn't get used to one paragraph only. Whenever you start learning a new skill, start with your left hand. For example, if you've never played guitar, your right hand doesn't know how to play either, so both hands are on equal ground. Training you left hand for use also trains your right hand; a person who can use both hands can use their right hand better than a purely right handed person can. This is call autonomic bilateral synchronicity. Throw a ball in the air a few times and catch it with your non dominant hand. Try writing in cursive if you know it, because the line will be more fluid and smoother to write, than in print where letters become wavy. Also try writing different words in the alphabet to see how some are easier and some to work on.

Warnings If you're shaving with your non-dominant hand, be careful not to cut yourself. Since you're not used to using that hand, it won't take much for you to slip and accidentally cut your face, legs, etc. The same goes for hammering nails in-- be careful to not smash the dominant hand holding the nail! Don't just use your non-dominant hand when training to become ambidextrous. This could lead to your dominant hand becoming less-dominant. The possible primary consequences of converting handedness are as follows: spatial disorientation (uncertainty concerning the left and right) memory disorders (especially in the recall of learned material) legasthenic problems or dyslexia (i.e. problems in reading and writing) disturbances in speech (ranging from stammering through stuttering) disturbances in concentration (being easily tired) disorders in fine motor skills that manifest themselves in handwriting Does being Ambidextrous means that you are smart and both sides of your brain works well? Education & Reference Questions and Answers Web Does being Ambidextrous means that you are smart and both sides of your brain works well? Question:What do you think ? Answers: Okay, let's start with the basics.

Ambidexterity is a form of cross-dominance in which the person demonstrates equal adeptness with both hands (and in some cases feet). It is usually very rare to be born ambidextrous, and most often it is learned while a person is still a child. Of course, it is possible for a person of any age to become ambidextrous, but it does become increasingly harder with age (as does anything learned). Anyone can do simple exercises with their opposite (less dominant) hand such as opening doors or eating, then moving on to the more difficult things such as writing. In any case, ambidextrous people usually do prefer one hand over another, even though their hands perform equally. It is said that people who are born left-handed have a much greater chance of being ambidextrous than those of right hand dominance simply because we are taught to write with our right hands in school at an early age and they begin developing muscles and motor skills in their right hands. This doesn't mean all left-handed people, just those that went to strict schools.

In any case, it has absolutely nothing to do with different sides of your brain as motor functions are determined by an organ's musculature and also (but less significantly) the primary motor cortex located in the frontal lobe of your brain. But, since becoming ambidextrous is mostly a form of conditioning your muscles, I would say that NO, being ambidextrous doesn't mean that you are smart. It just means you have a lot of time on your hands. No. Because the brain is divided into different part of function. Thinking and controlling for body part doesn't exist in the same lope. Ambidetrous means you can write and do other things with both hands. Since different parts of the brain control different activities, I don't think this term applies! :) The word "ambidextrous" simply means that you are able to use both hands equally well. This article contents is post by this website user, EduQnA.com doesn't promise its accuracy. More Questions & Answers...

Phenomenon of Ambidextrous Individuals Still Startles Scientists - PravdaReport Phenomenon of Ambidextrous Individuals Still Startles Scientists 09.06.2010 Phenomenon of Ambidextrous Individuals Still Startles Scientists Sergey Lebedkov from Saint Petersburg is a unique person who can say words backwards. He is not the only one who has this unusual talent. These people do not know how they could apply their phenomenal talents. Some of them have to hide their skills from other people. A lawyer who preferred to stay anonymous called the editor and complained that his career was about to be ruined. He said during his freshman year he was very nervous during an exam and did not notice he was answering questions backwards. The professor was shocked, and his peers were laughing at him and asked to repeat what he had said. “I am praying I don’t start speaking backwards in a court so people would not think I am crazy. My skill is my enemy. I think God is testing me so I don’t say too much defending the guilty.” Evgeny Kachura, 23, became famous in his small town in the Stavropol region thanks to his talent.

He is the only person in the area who could speak and sing backwards. He started speaking this way when he was a kid. “I would walk in the streets and read words backwards, entertaining my friends. Then I started saying sentences backwards and now it comes easy to me.” Science does not know much about these people. Speech pathologists think that only one person in 10 million can speak backwards. There are more people who can write looking in the mirror – one person in 100,000. Some of our readers from different regions have “Leonardo’s handwriting”. Print version Font Size “I could do it since I learnt to hold a pen. In school we were taught to write with our right hand, and being ambidextrous, I learnt to write with my left hand too, but backwards. I can write backwards simultaneously with both hands,” says Guzel Santgalina. Most people consciously developed the skill. Alexander Russkin from Moscow discovered it out of the blue: “I was at work and the phone rang. I was holding the phone with my right hand and had to write with my left hand. It came naturally and I was very happy about it because it would make work much easier.

A test conducted at worked showed that both parts of my brain were equally active. Maybe that’s the reason I am ambidextrous.” Scientists from Moscow Brain Research Institute could not support or contest this conclusion. They said the science does not know the reasons behind the ability to speak backwards because it has not been properly researched and does not fit into any of the existing theories. Every right-handed person can learn to write looking in a mirror with some training, but it will not come as easy as for ambidextrous people. Speaking backwards is difficult, but it develops cognitive ability and creative imagination. Equal activity of both parts of the brain is does not cause psychological problems. However, children may develop neurotic disorders when forced to write with their right hands instead of left. Ambidextrous children should not be re - taught . Many US schools teach children to write with both hands. Some nations believe it is much more convenient to write from right to left. People who have an ability to speak backwards can easily master languages like Arabic, Hebrew and some ancient Indian languages. - Leonardo da Vinci could work with his both hands. He used to draw with his right hand and write with his left one. - Jimmy Hendricks.

The rock musician could play right-handed guitar with his left hand turning it upside down. He used to place the strings backwards so they would be positioned the same way as on a regular guitar. Tatyana Visel, neuropsychologist, professor with Moscow psychiatry research institute: “The ability to speak backwards indicates unusually well developed right part of the brain. This skill can be developed with regular training. The right part of our brain is responsible for the movement in the left part of our body, while the left part is responsible for the movement of the right limbs. Most people have dominating left part of the brain responsible for speech and writing. Our society adapted everything for this type of people. At some point the right part of the brain may become “mature” and start participating in speech. This makes people capable of writing looking in the mirror or speaking backwards. Some people are born with the ability to use their both hands equally. These are ambidextrous people . Some people suddenly develop this ability. This can be caused by strong emotions or stress . Creative activity, i.e. something emotional, sensitive, esthetic can also form this skill.

People involved in dancing, music, painting at some point of their lives may start speaking backwards or writing with their left hand. People had different part of their brains active in various period of civilization development. Women give birth to ambidextrous kids increasingly more, and contemporary people often address their intuition as they are unable to deal with life issues with logic alone. This virtually means the beginning of new civilization. How to Become Left Handed when you are Right Handed Writing Practice 1 Practice using your left hand daily. Becoming proficient with your left hand will not happen overnight - it's a process that could take months or even years to complete. So if you want to learn how to use your left hand, you will need to commit to practicing daily. Set some time aside each day to practice your left hand writing. It doesn't need to be much; even 15 minutes a day will help you to improve at a satisfying pace. In fact, it is better not to commit yourself to practicing for long periods of time, as you will probably get frustrated and be inclined to give up. Practicing a little everyday is the best way forward. Practice drawing letters in the air.

Start by doing this exercise with your right hand, and then transfer it to your left hand by copying. Transfer the skill to paper later; sustained practice will be required to properly prepare your muscles. 2 Position your hand correctly. When training yourself to write with your left hand, it's important that you hold the pen or pencil comfortably. Many people are inclined to grip the pen too tightly, balling their hand up into a claw around it. However, this creates tension in the hand, causing it to cramp up and become tired easily. When this happens, you will not be able to write well. Keep the hand loose and relaxed instead, mirroring how you hold the pen with your right hand. Make a conscious effort to relax your hand every few minutes while you are writing. The materials you write with can also make a significant difference to how comfortable you find writing with your left hand. Use nice quality, lined writing paper and a good pen with free-flowing ink. Also tilt the paper or writing pad you're working with 30 to 45 degrees to the right. Writing at this angle should feel more natural. 3 Practice your ABC's. Begin by writing out your ABC's with your left hand, in both capital and lowercase letters.

Go slowly and carefully, concentrating on making each letter as well-formed as possible. Accuracy is more important than speed for now. As a point of comparison, you should also write out your ABC's using your right hand. From then on, you can focus on getting the letters you write with your left hand as perfect as those you write with your right. Hold on to your practice pages by keeping them in a folder somewhere. Then when you reach a point where you feel frustrated and tempted to give up on your quest to become left-handed, you can look back on these sheets and see how far you have progressed already. This should give you renewed motivation to continue. 4 Practice writing sentences. When you become tired with the ABC's, you can progress onto writing sentences. Start with something simple like "I am writing this sentence with my left hand." Remember to go slowly and focus on neatness rather than efficiency. Then try writing "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" over and over again. Since this sentence contains every letter of the alphabet, it's a good one to practice with. Other sentences containing all 26 letters are: "The five boxing wizards jumped quickly" and "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs".

5 Use writing workbooks. When children are learning to write for the first time they use writing workbooks where they can trace over letters made from dotted lines. This helps them to control their hand movement and gain accuracy. When learning to write with your left hand, you are essentially teaching both your hand and your brain how to write all over again, so using these workbooks is not a bad idea. You can also use copies with extra lines on the paper to ensure your letters are in the correct proportions. 6 Try writing backwards. In the English language, along with many other languages across the world, people write from left to right or from "thumb to pinky". This feels natural for right-handed people. It also helps to prevent the ink from becoming smudged as your hand moves across the page. For left-handed people, however, this movement often feels unnatural and can make a mess as the hand moves across the fresh ink. For these reasons, left-handed people often feel more comfortable writing backwards. In fact, the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci was left-handed and often wrote notes and letters backwards. They could only be deciphered by holding the paper up to a mirror and reading from the reflection.

Practice your own backwards writing with your left hand -- you might be surprised at how easy you find it. Remember to write from right to left, "thumb to pinky" on your left hand. You will also need to write the letters backwards for true backwards writing! 7 Do some drawing. Although the goal is to learn how to write with your left hand, you can also benefit from drawing with your left hand. This will give you valuable practice in controlling your left hand, while also building strength. Start with something simple, such as drawing basic shapes like circles, squares and triangles. Then progress onto sketching items you see around you, like trees, lamps and chairs, then if you're feeling particularly confident, people and animals. Drawing upside down (known as inverted drawing) using your left hand is another great exercise you can try. This will not only improve your writing skills, it is also a great brain-training exercise which will open you up to more creative thinking! Many great artists such as Michelangelo, da Vinci and Sir Edwin Henry Landseer were ambidextrous. This enabled them to switch from one hand to the other while drawing or painting if their hands got tired or they needed to work at a particular angle.

Landseer was also famous for being to draw with both hands simultaneously. [1] 8 Have patience. As mentioned above, learning how to write with your left hand is a process that will take time and dedication. You will need to be patient with yourself and prevent yourself from giving up too easily. Remember that it took you years to master writing with your right hand as a child and even though it shouldn't take you quite this long to write with your left (as some of the skills are transferable) the learning process will take time. Don't worry about speed initially; just keep practicing with as much control and accuracy as you can and you will become faster and more confident with time. Keep reminding yourself of what an impressive and useful skill it will be when you can write with your left hand. Staying motivated is the biggest challenge you'll face as you work towards becoming left-handed. Part 2 Strength Training 1 Do everything with your left hand. Skill automatically transferred from your right hand to your left hand somewhat in all those previous years of your life so it won't be extremely hard to start doing things with your left hand at first.

Since skill also automatically transfers from one task to another task somewhat, you will gain the skill faster to do a specific task with your left hand if you do all tasks with your left hand than if you do just that task with your left hand. Be patient. Some people say the older you are, the harder it is to change handedness but that's misleading. The illusion that changing handedness is easier at a younger age comes from the fact that the higher the skill you have with your right hand, the lower the patience you have for a given amount of skill in your left hand. In fact, the older you are, the shorter it takes for your left hand to gain a given absolute amount of skill. The easiest, but most important thing you can do to strengthen your left hand is to use it to complete all of the actions and activities you would normally do with your right hand. Make an effort to brush your teeth holding the toothbrush in your left hand. You can also comb your hair, pick up your coffee cup, butter your bread and open doors with your left hand, amongst many other daily activities.

Also try throwing darts (in a safe environment), playing pool or throwing and catching a softball with your left hand If you're finding it hard to remember, and keep using your right hand accidentally, try bandaging the fingers of your right hand together. This will prevent you from being able to use it and force you to use your left hand instead. 2 Lift weights with your left hand. One of the best ways to strengthen your left arm and hand, and correct any strength imbalances between your dominant and non-dominant sides, is to lift weights. Hold a dumbbell in your left hand and do exercises such as bicep curls , kickbacks , hammer curls and dumbbell presses . Start with a low weight, then move up to heavier weights as your strength improves. 3 Learn how to juggle. Learning how to juggle using three and then four balls is a great way to strengthen your left hand and arm, while also providing you with an impressive party trick! 4 Practice bouncing balls. One great exercise for improving ambidexterity and strengthening your non-dominant hand is to take two table tennis rackets and two balls and to bounce them simultaneously with both hands.

Once you master this, you can progress to using smaller rackets, or even wide-ended hammers. In addition to improving your left-hand usage, this is a fantastic whole brain exercise! [2] 5 Pick up a musical instrument. Many people who play musical instruments (which require the use of both hands) are already somewhat ambidextrous. As a result, picking up a musical instrument -- such as the piano or flute -- and practicing everyday will help you to strengthen your left hand. [1] 6 Go swimming. Swimming is another ambidextrous activity which has been proven to help with balancing the brain hemispheres, allowing you to use you non-dominant hand more fluidly. Hit the swimming pool and do a few lengths to strengthen the left side of your body and get a great cardio workout at the same time! [1] 7 Wash dishes with your left hand. Washing Dishes regularly with your left hand is a safe and simple method to improve on the dexterity of your non-dominant hand.This can be both fun and useful in the long run, apart from cleaning the dishes.

8 Start doing finer motor tasks such as mirror writing, playing pool, cutting cords out of shrimp, and throwing darts with your nondominant hand now that you practiced it up with simple tasks. Doing that will also practice up the general skill of automatically transferring skill from an action to its mirror image so that the next task you start doing with your left hand that you used to do with your right hand, you will be a tiny bit more skilled at doing it with your left hand when you first start than you would have been if you had never done it with either hand before. It may take many years for your left hand to catch up to the skill of your right hand but probably less than 2 months for your left hand to become very nearly as skilled as the right hand. Once your left hand becomes skilled enough to do do the job easily, there's no need to be impatient about your left hand becoming more skilled just because your right hand is even more skilled. You can skip the steps 2-7 if you want to hurry up and become ambidextrous and can handle the boredom of doing them slowly at first. 9 Remember to use your left hand at all times.

Using your dominant right hand has become so engrained in your brain that you will use it automatically, without thinking. This can be a problem when you are attempting to become left handed. To overcome this problem, try to come up with a system to remind yourself to use your left hand whenever you do something. For example, write the word "left" on the back of your left hand and the word "right" on the back of your right hand. This will act as a visual reminder every time you go to pick up a pen or complete some other activity. You could also try wearing your watch on the right wrist instead of the left. This will really help your subconscious to register that you are trying to change sides. Another thing you can do is place sticky notes on things like the phone, the refrigerator and the door handles. These will remind you to use your left hand whenever you reach out to touch them. Community Q&A How many months does it take to become comfortable writing left-handed? wikiHow Contributor It all depends on the person, their determination, and how much they use their left hand for other things, but usually, it won't take more than a year before you're comfortable writing in this way.

When you use your left hand too much and get the hang of it, will you forget how to use your right hand? wikiHow Contributor No, you will still be able to use your right hand. When you go back to using your right hand after not using it for a long period of time, you will be out of practice and your writing will probably look a little scruffy, but it's still your dominant hand. With a few days of writing with your right again, it should be back to normal. Will this work for drawing too? wikiHow Contributor Yes. If you can learn to write with your left hand, then you can learn how to draw with your left hand as well. Will I use the left or right side of my brain? wikiHow Contributor You are always using both sides of your brain. However, the right side of the brain controls the left hand and the left side of the brain controls the right hand. So if you're using your left hand, that's mainly being controlled by a very specific part of your right hemisphere that controls your left hand. Meanwhile, all the other regular activity of your brain, in both hemispheres, is still going on. How do I adapt to using my left hand? It feels odd.

wikiHow Contributor You keep practicing until you reach your goal. It feels odd at first, but eventually using your left hand will feel as comfortable as using your right. When I get really good and I use my left hand only, would it be wrong to answer "left hand" the next time I'm asked what hand I write with? wikiHow Contributor No, you should answer with the hand you in fact currently write with. If that's your left hand, so be it. You could also say you're ambidextrous. Whenever I try to write with my left hand, my hand muscles start cramping after about two words. How can I strengthen this hand? wikiHow Contributor You should relax your left hand when writing. Holding the pen too tight will cramp your muscles. Try to write elegantly and it shouldn't hurt. What about string instruments -- should I stop playing them? They are usually meant for right handed people. Should I stop playing the violin and cello? wikiHow Contributor Definitely not. Continue to play them, even if you use your right hand. Just make an extra effort to make your left hand do what your right hand does. If I'm left-handed, what are the benefits of learning how to be right-handed?

wikiHow Contributor The whole world manufactures items designed for using the right hand (e.g scissors, writing implements, tools, musical instruments, etc.). I am left-handed too, but I have learned to use my right and my life has become much less annoying. How long does it take to become ambidextrous? wikiHow Contributor It depends on the person and how much you practice. With regular practice, it could take around half a year. If this question (or a similar one) is answered twice in this section, please click here to let us know. Tips Make sure that you want to commit to becoming left handed Only practice your left-hand writing at home. When you are at school or work, write with your dominant or right hand, at least until you can write neatly and quickly with your left hand. This will save you time and prevent your work from looking too messy. Be patient! You must take your time and eventually you will achieve being left handed. While learning to write, adjust your posture to suit your new left-handed stance. While starting to use your left hand more, refrain as much as possible from using your right hand or arm. Use your left hand in everyday stuff, such as serving a volleyball, eating breakfast, etc.

Anything you usually do with your right hand start doing it with your left. Keep writing the 'quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' because it uses every letter in the alphabet. Use your right eye while using your left hand for writing. Practice writing letters in the air. Start changing your handedness at an older age like 20. If you want to actually change to using your left hand all the time rather than half the time for complex tasks, then your right hand will have already gained more skill earlier making you only weakly left-handed instead of strongly left-handed. Also, left handed people do things differently then right handed people. For instance, lefties tilt their heads to the left. Use your phone with your left hand only. Practicing 15 min a day makes left hand stronger. It takes a while. Have patience. Do all your work with your left hand and try to let your left hand have 75% of all work you do in a day. Warnings Ambidextrous | Definition of Ambidextrous by Merriam-Webster See ambidextrous defined for kids Did You Know?

Latin dexter originally meant "related to or situated on the right side," but since most people do things better with the right hand, "dexter" developed the sense of "skillful" (as demonstrated by our word dexterous ). In 1646, English physician and author Sir Thomas Browne combined "dexter" with the Latin prefix ambi- (meaning "both") in the first documented use of "ambidextrous": "Some are . . . ambidextrous or right-handed on both sides." The word can now describe the kind of physical or mental agility demonstrated by one with multiple diverse talents. Origin and Etymology of ambidextrous Late Latin ambidexter, from Latin ambi- + dexter right-hand — more at dexter First Known Use: 1646 Ambidexterity - Two Things At Once - Southpaw Ambidextrous Bookmark or Print This Page Now LET US INTRODUCE TO YOU OUR NEW AMBIDEXTERITY EXERCISE .....by Melvin D. Saunders ......Ambidexterity is the ability to use both your hands with equal ease or facility, but if you're armless, it could be your feet!

In fact, it is quite advantageous in certain sports and martial arts to be able to use both your feet with equal facility. The Greeks encouraged and tried to promote ambidexterity because it was simply logical in sports and battle to be adept with both hands instead of one. By combining the Phoenician style of writing right to left with their own left to right system, the Greeks created a reading and writing system called boustrophedon, where the lines ran alternately right-to-left and left-to-right. With alternating sweeps of the eyes back and forth, reading was more swift and efficient. ......Michelangelo (1475-1564) was a multi-faceted genius like Leonardo da Vinci. He often painted with both hands. When one got tired, he switched to the other. British artist, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) could draw with both hands simultaneously -- a horse's head with one hand and a stag's head with the other. He taught drawing and etching to Queen Victoria who was a lefty that became ambidextrous. ......Fleming, Einstein and Tesla were all ambidextrous.

Benjamin Franklin was also ambidextrous and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with his left hand. U.S. 20th president, James Garfield was a well educated backwoodsman born in a log cabin. Although he could write with either hand with equal ease, he could also write Greek with his left hand and Latin with his right hand simultaneously! Harry Kahne demonstrated his mental dexterity in 1922 by performing several mental operations simultaneously. While one hand was writing mirror language, the other hand intermingled upside down and backward letters. ......Rats given diverse and enriched environments have more connective dendritic spines to their neurons and overall heavier brains than rats exposed to dull, unchallenging environments. Left-handed and ambidextrous people have 11% larger corpus callosa (the bundle of nerve fibers joining the right and left sides of the brain) than right handed people. An autopsy of Einstein's brain revealed a larger profusion of superficial capillaries interlacing the cerebral cortex than the average brain, as well as an additional amount of glial cells. Obviously the more we use and exercise our brain, the more it physically grows.

The following exercises are designed to task the little used areas of the brain to allow such growth. ......To be able to use both hands equally well, practice is the key. During the day, use your left hand more (if you're right-handed) by consciously switching when you're about ready to do something -- pouring a glass of milk, bouncing a ball, flipping and picking up coins, hammering a nail, cutting and buttering bread, stirring your coffee, swirling water in a glass, twisting off bottle caps, etc. Wherever you would use your one hand, use the other instead -- putting a key in the door, combing your hair, brushing your teeth, shaving, grasping objects, etc. When putting on your clothes, put your other hand or foot into the garment first. Thread your belt around your waist in the opposite direction. Put your watch on your other hand. Use your other hand in sports -- hitting a baseball or a tennis ball, throwing a football, shooting a basketball, etc. Practice stirring 2 cups of tea simultaneously, swirling 2 half filled glasses of water clockwise and counterclockwise, and bouncing two balls at the same time.

Get used to the kinesthetic feeling of using the muscles of both your hands and arms together. Catch 2 balls thrown to you at the same time. Throw 2 paper wads at the same time into the same paper basket -- one underhand and the other overhand. Throw 2 darts simultaneously at a dart board with both hands. Write with both hands at the same time. Draw a butterfly, a vase or a geometric figure using both hands simultaneously, but keep practicing these exercises. ......Many musical instruments are played ambidextrously, and many athletes are adept at using both of their hands. Since swimming is an ambidextrous activity, teaching dyslectic children to swim often helps them to read and write normally because it balances the brain hemispheres. Become ambidextrous and along with an added physiological brain growth, a more balanced integration of your 2 hemispheres will be achieved. Studies have shown that ambidextrous people are more emotionally independent, more determined, more adaptable to new situations and more apt to handle problems without giving up. ......A new training manual with over two hundred mental exercises has recently become available for those willing to improve themselves.

It is entitled, The 100% Brain Course, and it shows you how to train yourself to do extraordinary things with your mind and body. Special Discount Price are people who are ambidextrous, smarter? are people who are ambidextrous, smarter? 7 are people who are ambidextrous, smarter? i remember someone telling me that ambidextrous people tend to have a higher IQ, can someone tell me whether this is true? can you improve your intelligence if you start to use your 'less-used' hand more often? and please tell me your sources... Re: are people who are both handed tend to be smarter? Originally Posted by serenetwilight i remember someone telling me that ambidextrous people tend to have a higher IQ, can someone tell me whether this is true? can you improve your intelligence if you start to use your 'less-used' hand more often? and please tell me your sources... I'm guessing that using both hands will stimulate both sides of the brain, thus more efficiency or something similar. 7 Re: are people who are both handed tend to be smarter? wahaha.

perhaps ambidextrous people tend to look at things from a different perspective..since they are capable of controlling both their right and left brain, and therefore regarded as 'smarter'. It's not like jugglers are the world's smartest people^_^''I don't think learning to be ambidextrous deliberately would affect your intelligence greatly. because it's hard work which is way more important =] Re: are people who are both handed tend to be smarter? Originally Posted by superelizabeth ANNE! IS THIS YOU??!!! lol Yep. Hard work helps you achieve in life, but it does not necessarily make you more intelligent. Originally Posted by Wikipedia Intelligence (also called intellect) is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason , to plan , to solve problems , to think abstractly , to comprehend ideas, to use language , and to learn . There are several ways to define intelligence. In some cases, intelligence may include traits such as creativity , personality , character , knowledge , or wisdom . However, most psychologists prefer not to include these traits in the definition of intelligence. Yes, you can work hard, but genes are a major factor. (I think.)

Question: If a person is ambidextrous they can use which part of the body equally well?
Answer: Hands