Teaching a child to cross their midline is crucial in developing their handwriting, as well as their reading and hand-eye coordination. Use these fun exercises to improve their bilateral coordination
When you hear the term ‘midline’, think about an invisible line drawn from the head to the toes that separates the left and right side of the body. It is important for children to be able to reach across the middle of their body with their arms and legs to perform a task on the opposite side.
When a child crosses the midline using their dominant hand, that hand will get the practice it needs to develop good handwriting skills. If the child avoids crossing the midline, both their hands get worked equally and their dominant hand won’t be as strong. Children need a strong dominant hand and a less strong supporting hand.
Sometimes children with poor midline crossing can’t draw a horizontal line across a page without swapping hands. They can’t sit on the floor crossed-legged or place a puzzle piece with their dominant hand when the puzzle is on the opposite side of the body.
The inability to cross the midline affects not only handwriting, but all areas of a child’s development, including being able to kick a ball, putting on their shoes or reading from left to right.
Indicators of difficulties with crossing the midline include:
- Swapping hands midway through an activity.
- Using the left hand for games on the left side of the body, and right hand for those on the child’s right hand side.
- Moving their bodies to the opposite side when reaching across their body.
- Finding it difficult to visually track from one side of the body to the other (ie reading a sentence in a book).
- Having poor pencil skills.
- Using different hands to hit a ball.
- Difficulty in crawling, skipping or doing star-jumps.
Here are some activities that can help:
Large ball catching
Get a large, soft ball and ask the child to sit crossed-legged (kneeling, seated or in their wheelchair if needed). Begin by standing directly in front of them and gradually move more and more to one side so that they have to rotate their upper bodies to throw and catch the ball.
Pass the ball
Get a few children to sit in a row facing forward. Ask them to pass the ball along the line of children. This will help the child to reach to get the ball from the child on their left, move it across their midline and pass it to the child on their right.
Lazy-8
Using a chalk board or other vertical surface, draw a large number eight on its side. Get the child to hold chalk or a crayon in their dominant hand with the other hand on the board for stability. They need to be directly positioned in front of the centre of the large lazy-8 and trace over it without lifting up the crayon or swapping hands.
Streamers
Get some party streamers or ribbons and let the child use their dominant hand to make big loops. For fun, let them tie the streamers to their big toes and let them make big leg movements, such as circles.
Marching games
Teach the children a marching song and get them to march in time to the beat using their right arm and left leg.
Stickers
Stick a few stickers on one side of their body, and let them take it off using their other hand.
Dr Emma McKinney is a “children with disabilities” specialist, a post doctoral fellow at Stellenbosch University and owns a company called Disability Included. email: emma@disabilityincluded.co.za
