AMBIDEXTROUS little’uns get worse than average results at school, research by London’s Imperial College has found.


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“Some children who are mixed-handed experience greater difficulties in school than their left- and right-handed friends,” said Dr Alina Rodriguez, the study’s lead researcher.

“We think that there are differences in the brain that might explain these difficulties.”

Ambidextrous or mixed-handed children are more likely to have trouble with language and more likely to be classed in the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) group, Rodriguez and her team found.

The Imperial researchers involved nearly 8,000 children from Finland, who were checked at ages seven and eight and again at 15 and 16.

On the plus side, being able to lead with both hands can be an advantage in many sports.

Probably the most famous living Londoner who’s ambidextrous is snooker maestro Ronnie O’Sullivan. He uses his mixed-handedness when a right-handed shot would be tricky, shifting effortlessly to his left.

About 1 in 100 people are ambidextrous, so that’s nearly 80,000 of them in London. They’re likely the lucky ones who can hail a cab with either hand, cling on Tube strap-hangers to both left and right and use a mobile phone with one mitt, while holding a hot take-away coffee with the other and not spil a drop all over their newly dry-cleaned strides.