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CHILDREN'S KNOWLEDGE OF LEFT AND RIGHT: RESEARCH NOTE
Author(s) -
Irwin R. J.,
Newland Jacqueline K.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1977.tb00439.x
Subject(s) - psychology , left and right , developmental psychology , left behind , social psychology , psychiatry , structural engineering , engineering , mental health
Summary Children's knowledge of left and right was compared with their knowledge of up and down by asking them to state in which direction the black half of a circle was facing: up, clown, left, or right. For 27 boys between 6J and 11 years, the percentage of correct identifications of up and down exceeded the percentage correct of left and right, especially for the younger children. This result was also found for eight other boys who were poor readers but of normal intelligence. The poor readers did not differ from the normal readers in their ability to tell left from right or up from down, although, if an error were made, the poor readers were more likely than the normal readers to make a mirror‐image error.