| ADHD has been associated with mixed dominance. | | | | * Poor handwriting |
| Most people are unilaterally dominant. Unilaterally | | | | * Difficulty with Organization |
| dominant people have an eye, ear, hand, and leg, | | | | * Difficulty with gross and fine motor movements |
| which are dominant on the same side of the | | | | * Learning difficulties |
| body. | | | | * Difficulties performing task that cross the body |
| Mixed dominance or mixed brain lateralization | | | | midline |
| refers to a condition where the individual is | | | | Crossing the mid-line work is any left side of the |
| ambidextrous or where the individual is right | | | | body movement that is performed with your |
| handed but left leg, left eye, or left ear dominant | | | | right side or vice versa. As you can guess, tasks |
| or any combination of incongruous hand, leg, eye, | | | | such as reading and writing require cross body |
| or ear dominance. To tell what ear or eye is | | | | movements, as your eyes must scan the page |
| dominant. Take a small earpiece and put it up to | | | | from left to right. |
| your ear, the ear you choose is your dominant | | | | Optometrist and Occupational Therapist believe |
| ear. To tell what eye is dominant, take a | | | | that for the brain to work efficiently the brain |
| kaleidoscope and look through it. The eye you | | | | must establish dominance. A brain with a cross |
| chose to look through the scope is your dominant | | | | dominance will have difficulty organizing |
| eye. You can kick a wall or ball (put shoes on) to | | | | information and will find that learning information |
| determine which foot is dominant. | | | | visually and auditorily more difficult. |
| Mixed handedness and mixed dominance has been | | | | The brain of a mixed dominant person is not |
| studied and was found to be correlated with | | | | organized in an efficient manner so retrieving |
| atypical cerebral symmetry and with mental | | | | information is also more difficult. According to |
| health problems such as ADHD. A study published | | | | specialist in this area, retrieving information when |
| in February of 2010 concluded that mixed handed | | | | the cross dominant individual is anxious or upset is |
| individuals were more likely to have language, | | | | more difficult still. |
| scholastic, and ADHD symptoms. | | | | In the late 1990s parents were reporting to |
| When my Primarily Inattentive ADHD son had his | | | | physicians that left-handed kids were more likely |
| vision therapy evaluation the optometrist found | | | | to have symptoms of ADHD. Studies looking into |
| that he was left eyed and left eared but right | | | | these reported phenomena did not support this |
| footed and right handed. The optometrist | | | | claim. These same studies, however, did find an |
| reported that this explained the following | | | | association between anomalous lateral brain |
| symptoms: | | | | functioning and the symptoms of ADHD. |
| * A tendency to misplace objects in his personal | | | | It does not take much imagination to see that |
| space | | | | issues with cross dominance will at best worsen |
| * A tendency to rotate his papers strangely | | | | the symptoms of ADHD and at worse may |
| when writing | | | | somehow be related to the cause of ADHD. As |
| * A tendency to tip his head 40 degrees when | | | | far as I know no studies have been performed |
| writing | | | | that specifically looked at how treating cross |
| * Difficulty with left and right side of letters | | | | dominance problems such as the inability to cross |
| ("Mommy is this the way the letter 'P' goes??") | | | | the mid-line affect the symptoms of ADHD. |
| * Difficulty making decisions | | | | |