Are there known cases where people can write upside down? [closed]

Question

From the time I was able to write I have been writing upside down, as in literally turning the page 180 degrees and writing. The funny thing is, I can't write the right way up! I am left handed which would probably make this more clear but to this day I find it really weird! I can easily read upside-down mainly because I've always had to write upside down!

I've never been trained to write in this way nor do I know anyone who can write like me! I've always been comfortable writing this way. I know nothing is wrong with me, but I am curious to know if there are other cases like me or maybe even explainations?

Answer 1

Leonardo da Vinci wrote both upside down, and in a mirror image. He did the latter partly to make it harder for others to read his journals and copy his ideas (he was doing his research in a time when it was forbidden by the church), but also to avoid smudging his writing. He was also left-handed.

Here is someone who also writes upside down and backwards. And here is a case of a mother asking if she should be concerned because her 2 1/2 year old daughter writes upside down.

Answer 2

This phenomena is much more common than most people realize. I have been working with several elementary students over the last three years who could not read and write conventionally, but can do so easily when the book/paper is upside down.

My wife and I also recently conducted an interview with a 74 year old retired reading teacher who discloses that she, too, was an inverted reader and writer before she entered 1st grade. Upon entering 1st grade she was discouraged from doing what came naturally, and unsuccessfully labored to read and write conventionally throughout her early academic career.

To view this interview and many others of children reading and writing inverted, simply GOOGLE PIreading.com

As requested, here's a link to the interview: http://www.dropshots.com/teacherman9000#date/2012-02-23/04:49:12

Answer 3

When lefties write left to right they face three difficulties:

1. They risk smudging what they have already written
2. The natural way to hold a pen means it is likely to dig in to the paper, rather than be drawn across it.
3. They tend to slope the letters backwards. I don't really understand why, but righties can demonstrate this for themselves by writing lefty

Rotating the paper alleviates these problems to some extent. I've noticed many lefties do it, though not to the extreme you describe.

Answer 4

We have been studying behavioral and neural mechanisms of upside-down writing and reading in a case of a young left-handed women who writes and draws upside-down only. Apart from some interesting spatial processing results (superior in some tasks) we have no explanation so far. We did discover, however, that this phenomenon is much more common than hitherto believed. Sally, please let me know if you would like to hear more about the study. We would, of course, benefit from hearing more about your writing.