Handedness, Eyedness, Hand-eye Dominance & Academic Performance

A three-year prospective, longitudinal, multi-school study was undertaken to investigate if either handedness, eyedness, their same or opposite side status (unilateral or crossed hand-eye dominance) was related to specific aspects of elementary school academic performance. Some 540 subjects, in 1 through 5 grades comprised the initial group. Testing on the reading sub-test of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (Iowa) was done three times over the course of the study. Subjects’ hand and eye dominance, performance on the Visual Motor Integration Test (VMI) and Wold Sentence Copy Test (Wold) were evaluated six times over the course of the study. Not all of the initial subjects were available for subsequent testing. There was no significant relationship found between any portions of the reading sub-tests of the Iowa and handedness or eyedness. The group of unilateral handeye dominant scored significantly higher than those with crossed hand-eye dominance on the Iowa’s reading comprehension and total reading scores . Significantly better performance was found for right handed, right eyed individuals as well as unilateral dominant subjects on the VMI. Handedness was not significant in performance on the Wold, but the right eyed and unilateral dominant scored significantly better than their left eyed and crossed dominant counterparts. Speculations are given on the meaning and clinical implications of the findings.