Mirror Writing and Hand Dominance in Children: A New Perspective on Motor and Perceptual Theories

Mirror writing is defined as the production of individual letters or whole words in reversed form, such that they become easily legible when viewed with a mirror. Mirror writing is most commonly characteristic of young children who are in the early stages of language acquisition (Schott, 2007), and has also been identified in certain cases of brain damage in adults (Paradowski & Ginzburg, 1971). Despite there being a few famous cases of adults practicing mirror writing intentionally (Schott, 1999), for most individuals it constitutes a complex, unnatural and cognitively demanding task. In light of this fact, it is intriguing that the vast majority of children have a tendency to mirror reverse words, letters and digits at some point during their writing development (Cornell, 1985). Several researchers have proposed theories regarding the behavioral basis of mirror writing, with the debate centered on whether mirror writing can be considered a predominantly perceptual or motor phenomenon.