- Hand Reading Mini-Course -

From the seventies, several studies were conducted focussed on how developmental disorders relate to the characteristics of the human hand. Especially the work of Charles Felzen Johnson & Erica Opitz^1,2 is significant in this perspective. They discovered e.g. that children who have developmental disorders, often have the characteristics of the simian line (see: figure D-2A) or the variants of the Sydney line (see: figure D-2B). However, often these children also have other abnormal characteristics in the hand lines - which were labeled by Johnson & Opitz as 'Type C'-lines (see: figure D-2C).

The etiology of this hand line defects is still considered as a 'mystery'. For, normally the primary lines development is independent from the other hand line. Nevertheless, in 1973 these researchers pronounced the following recommendation³:

"Inspection of palm creases should be a routine part of the pediatric physical examination"

Later, Johnson pointed to the fact that the defects in the lines do not have a SPECIFIC diagnostic value. These abnormalities can only be used as an "alerting signal".

In a study presented by Lerer³ both the simian crease and the Sydney line were more often found in the hands of 'hyperactive children' (about twice as often compared to the hands of 'normal' children).

Figure D-2: abnormal hand lines, simian line, simian crease, Sydney line, hyperactive children.