Abstract
The talk focuses on the phenomenon of laterality and handedness in humans. In addition to left-handedness as a specific manifestation of laterality, it also targets right-left asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres and eye dominance. it aims on different anthropological perspectives and explains the possible evolution, heredity, ontogenesis, or connection of these phenomena. It brings results from research experiments and studies, statistical data, and theories about laterality from older and modern times.
The research itself is qualitative research carried out on the basis of interviews with child respondents and their parents. The aim was to obtain their authentic experiences and views on their own handedness when functioning at school and during extracurricular activities. A total of 20 left-handed and right-handed children from eighteen families took part in the interviews. This is a research experiment on a topic that has historically been investigated using quantitative methods that compared cognitive and other skills between left-handers and right-handers.
The evaluation of the interviews yielded as key findings information about laterality and left-handedness as a practically non-existent topic in schools; the range of difficulties left-handed children have to deal with in school and extracurricular activities, unlike right-handed children; and evidence of inadequate addressing of these difficulties by educators.