An Apparent Epidemic of Left-Handedness
NOTES
The writer recently was consulted in regard to what seemed to be a veritable epidemic of left-liandedness. Practically all the boys of a Los Angeles junior high school home-room group were found to be left-handed. When questioned by the home-room teacher each boy staunchly insisted that he had been left-handed “ever since he was bona.” Observations showed that the left hand consistently was given preference for most manual activities. When the home-room teacher suggested that these boys use the right hand for writing, each claimed he just couldn’t do a thing with the right hand. Samples of their right-handed writing seemed to verify these statements. Careful investigation, however, disclosed the fact that these boys were baseball enthusiasts. To them left-handedness seemed to contribute materially to Babe Ruth’s success and they considered it imperative that they too be left-handed if they were to attain Babe Ruth’s eminence. Showing these boys that their assumed handedness was only a little ruse that would not assure baseball success per se was sufficient to induce a return to right-handed manual activities. Testing for eye dominance by means of the paper hole test (see A Simple Test for Ocular Dominance, The American Journal of Psychology, January 1931) is the most expedient and satisfactory method of disposing of situations of this type. In the case of a child pretending an unnatural handedness, questioning and testing for handedness only increases interest in the deception. The simple ocular dominance test does not permit the child to misrepresent his natural sidedness and the significance of the test in relation to handedness can be explained readily to the child.
Norma Y. Scheidemann University College, University op Southern California
The Los Angeles Probation Department and The Rotary Club of Los Angeles have collaborated in publishing a 48-page booklet “Why Have Delinquents? ” by Kenyon J. Scudder and Kenneth S. Beam of the Department. More than 6,000 children pass through the Juvenile Court each year and the Probation Department has 4,000 under its supervision as wards of the Juvenile Court. The records of the Probation Department show that approximately 70 per cent of these children before the Juvenile Court make a satisfactory adjustment. If this can be done through court action, how much more easily could these adjustments have been made earlier in the school and home?
The booklet is an account of the plan worked out to deal with this situation. By means of a Coordinating Council, all the agencies in the community which are concerned with or interested in Child Welfare are, as the name indicates, “coordinated” in order to deal more effectively with problems of delinquency, particularly before they become sufficiently serious to require the services of the Juvenile Court. The ideals of the Children’s Charter from the White House Conference represent the goals of this effort. Among the services so coordinated is the work of the Traveling Child Guidance Clinic provided by the California State Bureau of Juvenile Research. The clinic staff consists of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a psychiatric social worker.
The work of the Coordinating Councils is described in detail, and illustrated by various charts. A summary of the First Year’s Work is included. To defray expenses in printing and to maintain a fund for similar publications, it is necessary to make a nominal charge of twenty cents per copy. These booklets may be obtained from the Los Angeles Probation Department or the Rotary Club of Los Angeles.
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