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GLOSSARY OF HAND PREFERENCE TERMS
Ambidexterity: The ability to use both hands equally well, with average or above performance
Bilateral: Both hands used together, either doing the same thing or one hand leading, the other assisting or stabilizing
Bimanual: Both hands used together, each hand performing different skillful actions
Body Image: Providing a point of reference for all external spatial relationships
Body Laterality: Potential or preference of motoric and sensory functions in either side of the body
Cerebral Dominance: Having the most influence or control; neurologically, one hemisphere superior to the other in controlling motor function
Converted left-handers: Innately left-handed individuals forced as children to write with the right nondominant hand.
Directionality: Awareness of the relationship of one’s body to external objects, and then of the relationship of external objects to each other
Handedness: One hand more reliable across a range of skillful acts
Hand Preference: The consistent favoring of one hand over the other for the skilled part of a task
Laterality: Internal awareness of one side of the body as opposed to the other (left and right), necessary for projection of left/right in space
Laterality: Internal awareness of one side of the body as opposed to the other (left and right), necessary for projection of left/right in space
Manual: Having to do with the hand or hands
Mixed-Handers: Older children and adults who still switch hands
Pathological Left-Handers: Intrinsically natural right-handers who have transferred hand preference to the contralateral hand after injury to the left hemisphere during the perinatal or early postnatal period
Posture: Maintaining the body in reference to its center of gravity
Preference: The hand, eye, or foot the person prefers to use for particular tasks
Specialization: Devoted to a particular purpose or function
Unestablished Handedness: Children who switch hands during the process of development
Unilateral: One hand active, the other inactive
