Telling left from right is very useful in life. Without it, we lose our sense of direction. Every parent tries to teach their young children to tell which is their right hand, and which is their left, so they can do basic things.
Many parents ask me why their children confuse right and left and how to teach them easily.
The reason children confuse between right and left can be one of these:
- Organic – learning difficulties
- Emotional – stress and low emotional intelligence
- Bad teaching – teaching difficulties
Why should we know right from left?
You must be wondering why telling right from left is so needed. We all know it’s important, but never explore the reasons why.
Well, all our sense of direction is based on knowing right from left. We need it when we learn to write, exercise, drive, turn on the tap and operate machinery. It touches many aspects of life.
Telling the difference between left and right is harder than up and down. That’s because left and right change when we change our position. In other words, they are relative concepts. This is especially difficult for very young children.
It gets even more complicated when we need to tell other people’s right from their left. When I stand in front of someone, my left is their right, and that makes it more confusing. Again, this is even harder for young children.
Doesn’t everybody learn eventually?
Short answer: no.
A study published in 1970 examined doctors and their partners (Wolf, 1973). The researchers found that 9 percent of men and 17 percent of women confused between right and left.
An Australian study from 1990 found that about one-third of people sometimes experienced frustration with everyday situations that involved the discrimination of left and right (McMonnies, 1990).
Not telling right from left may be frustrating, but is mostly harmless. However, some professions require a good perception of space and telling right from left. The list includes draftsmen, carpenters, tailors, graphic designers and surgeons. Confusing them in these professions can cost money, require more effort and even risk people’s health and life.
In January 2000, two doctors at a Welsh hospital unintentionally took out the functioning left kidney instead of the right kidney of a patient, which eventually led to his death (The BMJ, 2004).
If we want to help our children have good spatial perception, and they have a challenge knowing right from left, we need to find the source first.
The Organic problem
Some learning difficulties are strongly associated with challenges with perception of space. Gerstmann Syndrome (Gold et al., 1995) is a damage in an area of the brain called Angular Gyrus, resulting in inability to name or distinguish the fingers (Finger Agnosia), inability to write (Agraphia), challenges with simple math (Acalculia) and confusion between right and left.
The good news is that most organic learning difficulties can be managed if diagnosed early. Due to the plasticity of the brain, when one area doesn’t function properly, other parts of the brain can take over.
Child development goes through 3 critical times: 5 years old, 9 years old and 12 years old. If you catch a problem and correct it before the child turns 6, it will be as if they never had it.
Catching and fixing it before the child turns 10 is the next best thing, although correction may not be complete. From 13 years of age onward, correction is more difficult and partial.
Stress, stress, go away
The second reason children confuse right and left is stress. Telling right from left is a higher brain function, which we can’t access when under stress. This is also true for adults, but children lack experience, tools and emotional intelligence to manage stress.
Stress triggers the children’s “primitive brain”, where they can only do Fight, Flight or Freeze. In this mode, distinguishing right and left is a luxury. Think about yourself in a jungle, when a lion attacks you. You must choose a direction to escape, but the name of that direction really doesn’t matter…
Many studies over the years have found that people could not complete simple tasks under stress. When I assess children, I play a game with them. At some point, I put some pressure on them and check their performance. It’s so gentle that sometimes, their parents are around, and they don’t notice me doing it.
100% of the time, the kids’ performance drops. And if I put enough pressure, they fail completely. Sometimes, the parents’ presence creates that pressure, and I can gauge the relationship based on the performance drop.
So, to improve kids’ spatial perception, including knowing left from right, teach them to notice when they are stressed and some relaxation techniques. This blog contains many posts on relaxation, how to deal with stress and how to raise stress-free kids that can help you do it.
Teaching difficulty
The third reason children find it hard to distinguish right from left is because they didn’t learn it property.
One of the biggest mistakes is to teach right and left at the same time. This causes children not to know which is which and appear to be guessing, because they make inconsistent mistakes.
This is the same mistake as teaching the letters “b” and “p”, or “b” and “d”, at the same time. I call it a teaching difficulty, because the child has no organic problem. The teacher simply confused the child by teaching two things at the same time.
Best way to teach right and left
So, here is what you need to know about teaching right from left so that the child knows them confidently.
Kids can tell left from right as early as 3 years of age, so I suggest you start at that age. Don’t wait for school to start, because school starts after the 5-year critical time, making it harder to fix any problems.
Never, never, never teach right and left at the same time. Pick one. If your kid is right-handed, teach right first. If he or she is left-handed, teach left. If you are not sure, teach right first (85% of the population is right-handed).
Talk about “the right hand” (or “the right side”) and always talk about the left as “the other hand” (or side) for a long time before you introduce the left.
If you ask yourself “how long is a long time?” then here is the logic to apply.
Kids have a bank of words in their brain. For every kid, the bank is a different size. When the bank is full, they understand the meaning. Until then, they keep guessing the answer and registering feedback.
Some kids need to hear a word 700 hundred times before they “know” the meaning of that word enough to use it. Some kids, like those with learning difficulties, need a lot more.
Keep saying things to add them to your child’s bank. If you check, always ask about the child’s own right or left. Never about others’. Remember, that requires a bit more spatial perception.
If you decide you’re not there yet, go back to only teaching right for a while and then check again. If the child still doesn’t know it, his/her bank of “right” and “left” are not full yet.
How I taught twenty 2-year-olds right and left
In my early childhood center, Garden of Eden, we started teaching right and left when the kids were 2 years old. We had a week of right and played many games with “right only” finger paint, standing on the right leg, covering the right leg with sand, clapping with another kid’s right hand, winking with the right eye, braiding the right side of the hair, moving to one side, etc.
We didn’t sing “put your right hand in” and “put your left hand in”, because that would have confused the kids. It’s a nice song, but it mixes both sides.
During “Right week”, we asked the parents to support the learning at home. We made sure that all week long, kids will be exposed to the words “right side”, “right hand”, “right foot” and “right eye”. We, and the parents, repeated them so many times that one week was enough to fill up their banks.
Only after 3-4 months of saying “the other hand”, we started using the word “left” and 100% of the kids could tell right from left confidently, 100% of the time.
So, age is important, but how you teach it is more important.
Happy parenting,
Ronit
Thanks for finally explaining why some kids have a difficult time learning right from left. Today my grandson had a problem remembering which leg he had used during some feat of greatness he was telling me about and had to have help recalling which leg it was and he is age 11. He is special ed so it kind of worried me when he was telling me. Maybe his parents tried too hard to help him learn left from right?
Elieen,
Thanks for writing.
Regardless of if he is special Ed or not, when teaching it together creates a “bug”in the brain.
The solution is to go for 2-3 weeks of only focusing on the right side. If you ask him several times a day to lift his right hand, after a while the brain will record it.
The games when you have to use once right hand or left are not healthy at all to play when teaching direction. ( again, regardless of if the child is special Ed or not.)
We call this teaching difficulty and not learning difficulty.
Both, by the way, can be easily fixed.
Happy day
Ronit
My daughter is almost 20 months old and can consistently show me her left or right hand, foot, eye, ear, cheek, leg, arm, etc. I did not do anything to “teach” her these besides consistently narrating what I was doing as I dressed her from pretty much birth. “Now let’s put your left shoe on your left foot,” etc.
Amanda,
Most kids will have no issue with it.
Some kids will.
This is why we encourage parents / teachers to teach it separately, just in case.
My daughter learned it on her own basically she’s 3 and the only “teaching” she’s had is her dad using the words left and right when asking for something and she just picked up in like a week between left and right hands feet and when grabbing objects but I did have a major problem with left and right and my parents spent forever teaching both I also had a hard time with d and b and sadly sometimes still put the wrong one of not paying attention
Elsie,
Most kids will be Ok if you talk about them together. This is why we say it is better to teach it separately. You never know if the child you are teaching might or not confuse between them.
If you confused b and d ( some also confuse them with p) than you are an amazing example to why you need to separate the teaching.
My child just turned two and has known his left from right for a long time and I taught them together! He is very precocious and learns fast in everything though. But he really does know the difference. I can test him at any moment of the day and he’ll get it right 95% of the time unless he’s playing around and wants to tease. He knew the difference 75% of the time when he was 18 months. 3 seems late to me to teach them. You underestimate children’s abilities!! I think most parents do. My child knew all of his colors at 15 months, while most of my friends children didn’t learn until 3 years. It just depends on if you teach them or not! You have to make it all fun and games because children learn by playing. If you do that I small child CAN learn anything.
Aruth,
This is wonderful.
My daughter was the same and a group of children in my early childhood center were the same too. They could tell right from left and had no problem identifying directions at the age of 2. Most of them could read and do prep or grade 1 math at the age of 3.
When children have some challenges, teaching simultaneously may create a problem.
I use this rule just in case and I recommend people to do when teaching 6 and 9 or b and P or d. Why take the risk?
In schools, many kids confuse letters or numbers looking the same and people say they have Dyslexia – NO they don’t! Their teacher thought all kids are the same and taught all of the in the same way.
I like the concept of introducing learning early and if you teach through games, you are right, they can learn everything. (I have hundreds of kids around the world that are a proof for it)
Officially, you start worrying if they cannon do it by the age of 3.
I disagre. My daughter named right and left body parts correctly before she turned 2 and we taught them simultaneously.
Swapna,
2 years and 7 month is early to know the difference.
I think she knows the difference but she can’t feel the inconvenience of putting the shoes in the wrong foot.
Being able to say which side is which requires analytical ability,much like learning the concepts of big and small. It is the same dog but we say it is big when it is … and we say it is small when it is… your daughter has a good understanding of it.
About swapping sides of shoes:
There is nothing to be concerned about. She will play with it until she recognises that the reason we put the right shoe in the right foot is to feel comfortable and the way we feel inside the shoe is a good way to tell. Some kids’ shoes designed in such a way they can’t tell the difference using their kinesthetic (physical) feeling so it seems the same to them. An arch and high heals can really help and support in the recognition ( I would not recommend to use that as strategy)
You can play a game putting shoes on with eyes covered and only using the feeling as a guide.
Another thing you can do is tell her the buckles is always outside/ inside the foot.
Another idea is attache something to the right hand corner of the right shoe and left hand corner of the left shoe and say that this thing needs to be above the foot’s small finger.
I think some kids experiment and it is wonderful they can make fun of themselves and experiment. My eldest used to sit in the toilet backwards and go with a sweater and boots to day care – 40 degrees outside ( Summer in Texas, USA) – nothing to be concerned about – just experimenting.
Happy day
Ronit
Hi Ronit,
My daughter is 2 years 7 months old. She always wears her shoe in the wrong foot. But if you asked her which one was her right hand she often shows the correct one. I did teach her left and right at the same time. Is there any reason for concern ? What is the typical age that a child knows her left from right.
Please let me know.
Hi Kristina,
I think when you have kids that loves learning new things, you can look in the mirror and say to yourself:
“well done, I did it!”
Curiosity is a great motivation tool.
Happy day
Ronit
Thank you so much! What a wonderful answer. I am just glad that he loves to learn new things. It is just so very amazing how fast he picks things up.
HI Kristina,
Our perception of normal is not really healthy for our kids.
If kids can do something that amazing, we cannot argue with this.
It is not expected of a child 2 years old to know his alphabet or to know their numbers but it is not expected because we underestimate their ability, not because they can’t.
I worked with many young kids age 1.5 to 5 and they could do things that people never believed they could. They were normal kids in an early childhood center with us teachers telling them, you can do anything you want.
Let me ask you this,
Is it normal for a a group of 2-3 years old to sit around a table and do a 240 pieces puzzle, together and complete it?
Well, it depends who you ask?
In the center in Singapore, that was the normal thing and the kids were “regular” kids that no one said to them “this is too early for you!” “You’ll learn this at school”
Your son is smart kid if he figured this out at such an early stage but he is perfectly normal kid living in a place where people allow him to excel.
Keep teaching him!
keep exposing him to new things!
Even if it means that at the age of 5 he will do age 10 things, keep telling him he is awesome and wonderful and smart and normal!
And if one day he asks you why he is different you tell him that all the kids are smart, they just don’t know that!
It worked for me, still does.
My son is 14 years old, he is in grade 11 and excels in everything he does and he is friendly and sociable and funny and talented and this is how we dealt with him being so smart. So he is convinced now that it is perfectly normal to be smart and that other kids are smart but they just don’t know it.
Hello, On son’s 2nd birthday in December he recognized and could recite the alphabet in order. A few weeks later I brought out a puzzle that I had been saving for him that had the numbers 0-9. I was going to teach them to him, but to my suprise he already knew them! Then earlier this month (he will be 30 months in a week) I taught him his left and right hand once and now he will show you whichever one you ask for every time! Is all of this normal for this age?
Karen,
20 month is really early. That is awesome.
Kid are like sponges, you teach, talk and they absorb.
Some kids are natural and do not need many agents to learn something and it is wonderful that your son is like that.
I think if kids are interested in something, this is the right age to teach them.
Underestimating kids abilities is never a good idea.
Ronit
Parenting Classes
My son knows right from left at 20 months. I did the same as the blogger above and taught him while putting on shoes. I didn’t even know he knew until my husband asked him which hand is the right hand and he knew. We then asked where the left hand was and he knew- I still didn’t believe it so we went though right and left feet then right and left cheeks, then knees. He knew every time. I am still amazed so I ask him every day and he knows every time. My mother always said kids are like sponges at that age and it really seems true. We are now working on numbers and the alphabet. Good luck everyone and don’t underestimate the ability of your children at any age.
HI J and Amber,
This is amazing your kids knows right and left from such an early age. It is wonderful.
My own kids were early kids too and I was very happy. you should be happy too.
In special Education, when kids cannot tell right from left it is usually an indication that something is wrong. My job was to find out if this was due to wrong teaching or processing problem.
If it is wrong teaching – the solution is different( sometimes harder because there is a defected path in the brain already and kids use this path to process other information and “contaminate” other functions)
If it is a processing problem – the solution is different. ( in my opinion easier because it is usually isolated and localized)
It is like giving a drug to remove scar or use a laser. The drug damages other functions, the laser is local.
Some parents do not know how to enhance their kids’ learning. This is fine.
However, no parent would like to create a problem in their kids’ learning. This is why I wrote this post.
It is a tip that Special Education professional give to avoid creating a problem from nothing.
No, not at all, you should not expect any difficulties in the future.
On the contrary, you can be sure by now that your kids do not have the learning difficulties associated with distinguishing right from left.
Happy Parenting
Ronit
My son learned right from left at 2 years 2 months old. He learned them at the same time and has no difficulty. I taught while putting on his shoes…simply saying, right shoe, and left shoe…then after a week or so I’d ask him for his right foot or his left foot. He learned it REALLY quickly. He knows right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot, and can discern which door of the car he should exit if I tell him the right side or the left side. We’ve had no complications with him learning the two things at the same time. Should I be expecting difficulties to arise later on?
My daughter is only 29 months old and knows her left and right. I was so shocked the other day when she told me on her own. She said this is my right hand and then showed me the other and said this is my left hand. She has been a quick learner since 10 months old and has a very large vocabulary for her age but I must admit the only way she could have learned was from driving in the car and she always aske which way are we going next so I always tell her either we are turning right and show my right hand or we are turning left and show my left hand. I thought maybe it was a fluke that she got them correct so I have asked her several times since then and she hasn’t once got it wrong.
Hi Andrew,
I think most of the kids do not mix. This tip is very relevant when parents or teachers notice there is a confusion.
Notice that when you ask:
Show me your right hand?
or
showing him a hand and asking ” which hand is this hand?”
Are totally different questions.
I believe the first one is harder.
You are so right about the confusion between right and correct. This is why it is better to say right hand or left hand.
Thanks for sharing
Happy day
Ronit
Hi Ronit,
Interesting post. I know a couple of people that have this problem, maybe due to this.
Didn’t think of this when I told my son which hand was which (about a month ago, when he was 25 months, just to see if he got them). Thankfully he seems to not be mixed up – I found your post after he calmly told me at breakfast, out of nowhere, that this hand is his right, and this is his left.
After reading your post, thought I’d stick to one for a bit, the right.
So, in this new initiate, I sallied forth with “which is your right?”. He got it correct, then put out his left for identification. Before trying “the other”, i thought i’d ask him which he thought it was. No hesitation there – “left”!
Ah well, good thing my poor teaching hasn’t hurt!
The one thing that I’ve been careful not to do (and have told off others for doing so) is to respond to a correctly identified left hand with “that’s right!” – “that’s correct!” is much less confusing!
Andrew
Patricia,
No, I do not think there will be a problem.
I think it is wonderful that he learned it from the GPS.
All you need to do is check that he can recognize right from left outside the car. The problem kids have is the transfer the learning from one situation to another.
The good think about the GPS is that a second after it says ” Turn right in 100 meter” you have an immediate feedback and the car turns to the right. So, No, I do not think there will be a problem with that.
but…
Now you know what to do in case you find a problem. If you notice any confusion, stick to one side ( usually the one they write is is the easy way)
He must be a smart kids at such a young age to learn from the GPS.
Happy day
Ronit
HI Ali,
I am glad you think it is interesting.
Come again,
Ronit
My son is almost 3 yrs old. He knows his left from his right. I didn’t teach this to him. I think our GPS in the car did. I hope it’s okay, because he probably learned them around the same time through no trying on my part. Do you think it will be okay or will he be confused later? He seems to know them well.
That is a really interesting post, thank you.
Hi qtpies7, ( I like your name)
I had it too when I was young. I really thought it is because something is wrong with me until I studied special education and realised I was OK. Did you find tricks to tell which one is which?
Ronit
That is really interesting. I have a hard time with right left.