Part Two – Confession…I'm directionally challenged but….
I know you’ve all being waiting to hear more about the right/left/right confusion I posted about on 08/29, so here we go:
It seems there is a group of people that are directionally challenged, and a lot more than me. How big the group is depends on who you listen to. General thoughts are about 15% of the population has this problem. When you drill down into the 15% group, we find that 26% of college students and 19% of college professors acknowledge left/right challenges. This would make you think the challenge could be related to education or intelligence, but studies cannot validate that position. As for a link to a person’s sex, studies do show a larger percentage of women reporting difficulties than men (or maybe men will not admit directional challenges).
Children generally can tell their own left and right by age 6, and other people’s left/right by 8. Part of a child’s early confusion is because so much early instruction at home and school takes place face to face. Remember, “Raise your right hand” then the teacher raises her right hand and the kids raise their left.
So the next time someone tells you to turn left onto Merrill Road, remember, some people would prefer you say turn by the Burger King and head towards the beach.
And some would prefer to confuse everyone by telling turn east at the Burger King