Right and left orientation in children aged 5 to 13 years

Abstract

A 32-item test of right/left orientation was administered to 360 normal children, aged 5 to 13 years. The distribution of scores was tested to determine if parametric descriptive statistics were appropriate. As the distribution was multimodal, the test of normality was rejected. The three modes were consistent with a stage development theory, with the respective modes being consistent with (a) no understanding of right/left, (b) a personal or egocentric understanding of right/left, and (c) a generalization of right/left to external objects. Therefore, the data are presented in terms of the probability of obtaining a specific score at a given age. Scores were not found to be related to sex and were weakly, if at all, related to level of psychometric intelligence.