Jan 26 2010
The Hand Bone is Connected to the Tongue Bone
Ever here that grade-school song about skeletons?
With the toe bone connected
to the foot bone,
and the foot bone connected
to the ankle bone,
and the ankle bone connected
to the leg bone.
New research has revealed an odd sort of connection between body parts. Well, not the parts so much as how they function. Here’s the science:
Around one in every 100 people is mixed-handed. The study looked at nearly 8,000 children, 87 of whom were mixed-handed, and found that mixed-handed 7 and 8-year old children were twice as likely as their right-handed peers to have difficulties with language and to perform poorly in school. [source]
How, pray tell, is the “handedness bone” connected to the “tongue bone”? The most logical possibility at this point is that the brain’s natural dominance of one hemisphere over the other is disrupted. And brain lateralization/dominance plays a role in handedness (righty/lefty), language, and a host of other behaviors.
Teachers may want to keep an eye out for young learners that keep switching their crayon from one hand to the other. Those students may have some problems in school further down the line.
