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error is not one of perception but due to an
automatic tendency to make opposite movements
It can be supposed that the simultaneous
use of the hands evokes more primitive or in
infantile patterns of movement than the use of
a single hand which is associated with the
acquisition of dominance
The brain injured children resembled the
normal chi Idren in simultaneous movements
but in single movements the horizontal component
tended to be in opposite directions more fre
quently than in normal children There was also
agreater tendency to make opposite movements
in copying parallel obliques simultaneously
The condition in the brain damaged children in
whom the pattern for single movements resembles
that for simultaneous movements could be re
garded as more primitive than in normal children
As is usual in brain injured children there was
a greater proportion of left-handers in our group
than in normal children and the differences
between the groups may result from comparative
weakness of lateralization in the brain-injured.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by
a grant from the Medical Advisory Committee of
The Spastics Society and we are grateful to
Prof PE Polani for his encouragement Also
to Mr G J Higgon headmaster of Martindale
School fa the Physically Handicapped Miss J
Manning headmistress of Hounslow Heath
Infant School and Mr D A Such headmaster
of Hounslow Heath Junior School for their
generous co operation and to Middlesex County
CounciI for facilities
Addendum Dr Margrete Landmark has kindly
referred me to a paper by N Maki Naturliche
Bewegungstendenzen der rechten und der liken
Hand und ihr Einfluss auf das Zeichnen und den
Erkennungsvorgang in Psychol Forsch 1928
10 1 in which Maki describes the hand move
ments of a brain damaged patient with agnosia
when copying simple line figures in the air.
The patient was unable to make other than left
to right movements with the right hand and right
to left with the left whether copying with one
hand or with both simultaneously
Summary
The movements of the hands of children were
studied when they were copying figures with one
hand or with both simultaneously their hands
60
being hidden from them
In single movements horizontal lines were
drawn preponderantly dextrad vertical lines down
wards and circles anticlockwise-i e vertical and
horizontal components tended to be in the same
direction in both hands
In simultaneous movements the vertical com
ponent tended to be in the same direction and the
horizontal component in the opposite direction in
the two hands This tends to lead to error in copying
two parallel oblique lines simultaneously
Brain injured children had a greater tendency than
normal children to make the horizontal component
of single movements in opposite directions-i.e , in
this respect their single movements were more like
simultaneous movements made by themselves and by
normal chi Idren
It is suggested that simultaneous movements follow
a more primitive pattern than single movements and
that the condition in brain-injured children results
from weaker ateralization
References
Abercrombie M L J Lindon R L Tyson M C
(1964) Associated movements in normal and
physically handicapped chi Idren Develop Med
Child Neurol 6 573
Gesell A Ames L.B. (1946) The development
of directionality in drawing J genet Psychol
68 45
School Psychological Service
I am grateful to Mr BR Barnett B A for submitting
the following report
Referra Is

The drop in referral rate may be due to the position
becoming more stabilised but it is more likely to be