Twins - one left handed?

shalhevet

Fri, Sep 19 2008, 4:54 am

This was posted on another thread:

RachelEve14 wrote:

Wow thanks for bringing this up. Nechama is a definite lefty and I never even thought to have her say Shm'a with her other hand. I'll have to ask my rav.

Someone told me recently that twins are always one right-handed and one left-handed, and I was skeptical (I have a brother and sister who are twins, and one is a rightie and the other a leftie.) So I was reminded of this after reading RachelEve's comment.

So I'm conducting an informal survey (just out of interest). If you have triplets, let us know by posting please.

shosh

Fri, Sep 19 2008, 5:09 am

Mine are both righties, like their dad. But then they are fraternal twins, to which I don't think this applies.

mummy-bh

Fri, Sep 19 2008, 5:17 am

Mine are identicals, but they are only 18 months so we don't know yet.

I have a close friend who has fraternal twins, and one is left, one is right.

mali

Fri, Sep 19 2008, 5:36 am

all identical twins I know are lefty and righty.

Raisin

Fri, Sep 19 2008, 5:37 am

I am teaching twins this year, and they are identical but their mother told me once that they are "mirror image twins". Only some identical twins are like this.

Quote:

Mirror Image Twins
If you are mirror image twins it means that you are also identical twins. Mirror image twins are created when the fertilised egg splits quite late (around days 9-12), any later and twins can be co-joined.

Mirror Image twins have small mirror image differences but are actually genetically identical; this means you have the exact same DNA!

Some parts of the body can be mirrored; but not the appendix or heart or other internal organs as far as we know. We have some examples of our own mirroring:

We are opposite handed (Flame is left and Lake right)
We tend to have mirror image dental problems
Our cowlicks (tuft of hair at fringe) are on opposite sides
Where people often have different size feet, with us the opposite foot is larger
We look very similar to each other but the resemblance is even stronger if we stand facing each other (as though in a mirror) rather than side by side. Or get both of us facing into a mirror and things all start to look very confusing.
Our finger prints don't seem to conform to being mirror image – instead they are nearly identical (only one pair of fingers has any major difference)
We've had emails from many other mirror image twins who tell us they also have these types of physical similarities. We don't really seem to experience mirror image aptitudes and have instead have very similar interests and skill levels.

drumjj

Fri, Sep 19 2008, 5:58 am

im an identical twin and my sister and I are right and left. and we are considered mirror image twins. I have a spot on one side of my face and she has it on the other and personality wise we are very opposite aswell.

RachelEve14

Fri, Sep 19 2008, 7:31 am

Wow I inspired a thread Smile

Nechama showed a preference for her left hand really early, but I never thought of it as a twin thing (dh and I are right handed, but we both have direct relitives who are leftys). My twins are not identical. At least they don't look much alike, we haven't done a dna test. We're pretty sure they are fraternal though.

zaq

Wed, Oct 22 2008, 11:31 pm

mirror image twins will be lefty-righty and will probably have different personalities, one more right-brain and one more left-brain. I think, though, people notice the diffs more b/c they're twins, the way you can tell that two pieces of cloth that look the same are NOT the exact same color only when they're side-by-side. If they were a year or two apart instead of twins you might remark more on their similarities than on their diffs.

Not all twins are mirror- image. Non-mirror-image identicals can both be one or the other.

Zus

Thu, Oct 23 2008, 9:10 am

I find this subject very interesting. I think that our identical twins are regular, not mirrored. But honestly I haven't looked that closely. I do think they're both right handed.

ny21

Mon, Nov 03 2008, 9:04 am

one of my twins writes with right hand the other twins writes with left hand.

Last edited by ny21 on Mon, Jul 09 2012, 10:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

bashinda

Mon, Nov 03 2008, 1:31 pm

I have triplets but I don't know yet if any are lefties.