Crossing Midline

Taken from: http://nspt4kids.com/parenting/help-your-child-develop-the-crossing-the-midline-skill/

Help Your Child Develop the “Crossing the Midline” Skill

April 18, 2011/12 Comments/in Behavior, Birth-3, Development, Family, Kindergarten-5th Grade, Occupational Therapy, Parenting, Physical Therapy, Preschool, Reading /by Marissa Edwards

What is “Crossing the Midline”?

By the age of 3 or 4 years old, a child should have mastered the bilateral skill (using both sides of the body together) called “crossing the midline”. This is the ability to move one hand, foot, or eye into the space of the other hand, foot or eye. We cross midline when we scratch an elbow, cross our ankles, and read left to right. Crossing the midline of your body helps build pathways in the brain and is an important prerequisite skill required for the appropriate development of various motor and cognitive skills. Children who have difficultly crossing the body’s midline often have trouble with skills such as reading, writing, completing self care skills and participating in sports & physical activities. These skills require a type of coordination that comes from experience with “cross-lateral motion,” which is movement involving the left arm and right leg, or the right arm and left leg at the same time.

Establishing a “worker hand” and a “helper hand” is a sign that the brain is maturating and lateralization is occurring, and is strongly correlated with the ability to cross the midline. Both sides of the brain need to talk to each other for the “worker hand” and the “helper hand” to work together and compliment each other. Coordinating both sides of the body can be difficult for the child who avoids crossing midline. Often, these children have not yet established a hand preference, sometimes using their left and sometimes using their right to draw, color, write, eat, and throw.

Affects on children who do not develop the Bilateral Skill:

Furthermore, when a child has difficulty crossing midline, it can affect his/her ability to read. While the child is moving his/her eyes from left to right across the page, the eyes will stop at midline to blink and refocus; however, when this happens, the child will very frequently lose his/her place on the line and become confused as to where they left off. It also affects handwriting, as diagonal lines cross the midline, and the child may need to stop in the middle of the page to switch hands when writing from left to right. Many self care and daily living skills require crossing midline. For example, perfecting the skill of putting socks or shoes on requires one hand to cross over to the other side of the body.

Children who have difficulty crossing midline may appear ambidextrous because they are often observed using both hands, but they actually have a hidden neuroprocessing issue. Both sides of their brains are not communicating, resulting in decreased coordination, decreased motor control of movements and difficulties achieving higher level skills. Often, these children end up with two unskilled hands.

Activities to help develop the ability to Cross the Midline:

To help develop efficient crossing of the midline, provide children with a variety of two-handed (bilateral) activities. Try some of the below activities to help build more pathways in the brain and to develop the ability to cross the midline, improve coordination, and improve overall functional performance on a daily basis.

Right Brain/Left Brain Teasers-

a. Pop bubbles with only one hand (they will have to reach across their body to pop the bubbles floating on the opposite side).

b. Reach for bean bags, balls, stuffed animals, or other objects across midline, then throwing at a target.

c. Draw large figure eights (the infinity sign or an 8 turned on its side) on paper, on the floor with a finger, in the air with a finger, or drive a matchbox car around a figure eight pattern.

d. Let the child play with sand, scooping sand from one side of the body and putting it into a bucket on the opposite side of the body without switching hands.

e. Let the child pretend to drive a car with a ball in his/her hands to use as a steering wheel and encourage the crossing of his/her arms as he/she turns the ‘steering wheel’ Or…In order to make this similar in style to most of the others—Pretend to drive a car with a ball in both hands to use as a steering wheel and cross both arms while turning the “steering wheel”.

f. Play flashlight tag. In a dimmed room, lie on your backs and have the child follow your flashlight beam projected on the wall with his own flashlight.

g. Touch the opposite elbow and knee.

h. Cross one foot over the other while walking sideways.

i. Do “grapevine” walks.

j. Knee Slap Walk- Walk around raising each knee while touching/slapping it with the opposite hand (or elbow). Change it to a skip while touching the opposite knee as it comes up.

k. Windmills-Stand with feet spread apart and arms extended out to the sides. Bend over at waist and tap right hand to left foot. Stand back up and then bend and tap left hand to right foot.

l. Point your left finger out and put your right thumb up. Switch them, and switch, and switch, and switch…

m. Hold your nose, then cross the other hand over and grab your opposite ear. Slap your thighs and switch your hands…switch, slap, switch, slap…

n. Write your name in the air while rotating your foot in a circle clockwise.

o. Wash the car and make sure the arms cross midline while scrubbing.

Bilaterial Coordination: Why Bilateral Coordination Delays can Lead to trouble in the Classroom

Taken from: http://ilslearningcorner.com/2016-04-bilateral-coordination-why-bilateral-coordination-delays-can-lead-to-trouble-in-the-classroom/

Bilateral Coordination: Why Bilateral Coordination Delays can Lead to trouble in the Classroom

This article provides information on how to help your child with bilateral coordination. Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

How long has it been since you thought about how both sides of your body work together? Do you remember the first time you tried to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time? Do you remember as your child first learned to roll over, crawl, walk, run, or skip? These are things that most adults take for granted until they have a child learning how to do it for the first time. Learning how to use both sides of our body at the same time, either to do one task or two tasks at the same time, is valuable. We need to learn to balance on one foot to kick a ball or kick our children’s shoes out of our way when we’re carrying groceries through the front door.

Our children also need to learn valuable bilateral coordination skills. Believe it or not, they use it on a daily basis in the classroom. While taking notes or writing an essay, they must stabilize the paper while they write or they must hold the paper steady as they cut it into different shapes. If your child can already do these types of activities, it’s a good indicator that both sides of their brain are working together and communicating properly for higher learning.

Delays in Bilateral Coordination

Children who struggle with bilateral coordination have difficulty tying their shoes, drawing, writing, crawling, walking, riding a bike, and often appear clumsy or uncoordinated. They may also have underdeveloped visual motor skills, fine motor skills, poor hand-eye coordination, and issues with their vestibular system. Crossing the midline also plays an integral role in bilateral coordination. If your child can’t cross the midline, this means they aren’t building the neural connections in their brain for higher functioning tasks. This is why you may see your child struggling to read from right to left.

Exercises to help with Bilateral Coordination

If your child has difficulty crossing the midline or if they haven’t developed their bilateral coordination skills, there are several activities you can do at home to help them develop these skills.

As your child learns to use his or her body on both sides, together and separately, they learn how to follow patterns, track words on the page, improve handwriting and follow directions.

Games Using Hands

Let’s first get your child started by doing activities with their hands. Here are a few suggestions.

Play Catch

Throw a ball back and forth with your child. Toddlers usually throw underhand first. Encourage your child to throw the ball up instead of downward if they throw it underhand. Help them track the ball with their eyes to also improve their visual tracking skills and hand-eye coordination, which also develops their bilateral coordination.

Blow Bubbles

Blow bubbles and have your child try to pop them. Change the direction you’re blowing the bubbles so your child moves to pop them. Encourage your child to pop the bubbles with opposite hands and switch back and forth to bilateral build coordination on both sides.

Hit Balloons

Hit a balloon back and forth to each other. This can be fun at any age, but it is especially great for toddlers since balloons move slowly than balls, which will keep them from getting discouraged. It is also great for children who are underdeveloped and don’t have the “body readiness” for larger balls and other objects. This activity helps your child with hand-eye coordination and allows them to determine the distance between them and the balloon (proprioception). The balloon will fall at a slower pace than a ball and won’t pop as easily as the bubbles.

Pudding Paint

Instead of painting with paint and a brush, have your child paint with pudding and their fingers. A great way to incorporate bilateral coordination is to have them use both fingers to draw an object at the same time. For example, two circles with both the right and left hand. This may be tricky, but it will help your child use both hands at the same time. Painting with their fingers can also improve their fine motor development and strengthen their fingers, wrists and hands for pencil grip and handwriting. Another reason to use pudding is because it’s edible, washes out easily and is a great tactile activity for sensory integration. It is also one of the few times that it’s OK to play with your food.

Games Using Feet

To further develop your child’s bilateral coordination, we want them to use their feet as well as their hands. Working their vestibular and proprioceptive systems through movement improves their attention and focus in the classroom.

Swimming

Swimming is a great way for parents to help their child with bilateral coordination. It allows your child to use both the arms and legs while in the pool or at the beach. Help your child kick their legs together in the pool and use both their arms to tread water. If they are old enough to try the butterfly stroke, it will encourage them to use both their arms and legs together as a way to incorporate bilateral coordination. Swimming also provides opportunities for your child to build their core muscle strength used for better posture in the classroom. For infants, it’s a great way to incorporate tummy time so they can develop their neck muscles, postural muscles and motor responses for learning development and greater brain activity.

Soccer Ball

Have your child kick a soccer ball back and forth, alternating the ball between both feet. Dribbling is a great way to encourage bilateral coordination in addition to other soccer drills that help kids cross the midline, develop direction, and gain body awareness as they become familiar with the strength needed to kick the ball to their teammate. Soccer is a sport that solely focuses on the feet, which is important for children who tend to be uncoordinated or clumsy.

Hopping on one Foot

Cut out a few stepping stones with construction paper and place them on the floor. Have your child hop on one foot, jumping from one stepping stone to the next. When they complete this activity with one foot, make sure they hop back with the opposite foot.

Games Using Feet and Hands

Activities using both the feet and hands together and separately not only improve your child’s bilateral coordination, but improves their core muscle, posture and muscle tone. This is important for copying notes from the chalkboard, sitting upright in their chair, lifting their head to see the teacher and strengthens other important gross motor skills needed for performing better in school.

Jump Rope

This takes more coordination than we might like to admit. The first time a child tries to jump rope, the rope usually hits the child’s feet first. That’s OK. The child is learning to use his or her hands to move the jump rope around. Then, he or she will learn to step over the rope, then they will jump over the rope, and finally, they will put it all together to jump over the rope as it spins over the child’s head and toward the child’s feet. Cool, isn’t it?

Hopscotch

Hopscotch forces your child’s hands to throw the rock first and then use their feet to balance during jumping and landing. Have your child switch which hand throws the rock. When your child first tries hopscotch, it’s ok for him or her to land on both feet instead of one foot. Work up to one foot, both feet spread a part, and other foot patterns.

Obstacle Course

Obstacle courses are by far one of the best activities for your child’s learning development. This exercise involves the hands and the legs for bilateral coordination. Feel free to get as creative as possible. In the obstacle course you create, include crawling, jumping, running, hopping, and any other toys or objects that will make it fun for your kids.

Exercises to Help Bilateral Coordination

As you monitor your child’s development, if you notice your child has issues with their bilateral coordination, sensory, auditory, vestibular, or visual systems, which prevent them from fully developing, they will need exercises to help their learning behavior, attention and focus, and fidgeting in the classroom. Without these exercises, you may continue to notice delays in your child’s learning or side effects that can cause toe walking, W-sitting, bedwetting, poor balance and coordination, underdeveloped vestibular and proprioceptive systems, and trouble with motor planning. If your child struggles with any number of these issues, it could be an indication that the nervous system is underdeveloped.

Sensory Seating

"Miss Maplethorpe, from our Speech and Language Department created these chairs for our students that have sensory issues. Thank you Miss Maplethorpe.

Sensory seating is used for students who may have difficulty processing information from their senses and from the world around them. Tennis balls on the seat and backrest provide an alternative texture to improve sensory regulation. Students with autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome, sensory processing disorder, etc. may benefit from this seating option."

Balance and Coordination Activities

Blending Sounds to Read Words- Multi-Sensory

The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking