Assessment of speed of writing among left-handed and righthanded undergraduate students of University of Benin

Abstract

The term handedness describes a characteristic form of specialization whereby a person by preference uses  one hand for clearly identified activities, such as writing. In most manual tasks usually, the preferred hand is  used more than the unpreferred hand. The aim of this study was to compare the speed in writing of left-handed  and right-handed undergraduates at University of Benin. One hundred (100) undergraduate students  irrespective of gender were used. Fifty of the students were males while the remaining fifty were females. Fifty  (50) were left-handed and fifty (50) were right –handed. The students were made to undergo a speed test  in writing and the time taken to complete the test was recorded in seconds. Result was expressed as Mean  ±SEM. Difference between means were assessed using students t-test and p value less than 0.05 (p<0.05) was chosen for significance. Results showed no significant difference in the speed of writing between  left-handed users and right-handed users, though the right-handers were slightly faster. When the right-handers and left-handers used their non dominant hand, left-handers were faster. In the change from dominant hand to non-dominant hand, left-handers were faster. This can be applied in post traumatic rehabilitation involving damage to the dominant hand.

Keywords: Dominant hand, Left-handed, Right-handed, Speed, Writing