Correction of left handedness worsened mirror writing in a girl with spastic diplegia
No To Hattatsu, 30 (4):
339--345 (July 1998)Abstract
We experienced a 4-year-11-month old girl with right side dominant spastic diplegia caused by preterm birth and neonatal asphyxia. She tended to use the left hand but showed mirror writing on both hands, which was aggravated by correction of handedness to the right. Magnetic resonance T2-weighted imaging revealed a localized high intensity lesion in the white matter of her left parietal lobe, caused by hypoxic insult and suggested a damage of spatial orientation center. Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence showed a total IQ of 76, VIQ of 86 and PIQ of 74, revealing borderline intelligence with insufficient visual perception. Frostig visual perception test revealed lower scores of position in space. Spatial confusion caused by a lesion in the left parietal lobe might have induced the mirror writing of this case. Forced correction to use the right hand with damaged left parietal lobe may aggravate spatial confusion and consequently worsen mirror writing.