The midline is an imaginary line that extends from our head to our toes, separating our right side from our left side.
Crossing the midline are activities that involve the mutual communication of the two brain lobes. It is the ability to use both sides of the body at the same time.
Babies start reaching for objects with both hands near the 4th month and begin to develop their midline skills. Problems in crossing the midline in babies can be caused by using too much trunk while reaching, constantly changing hands and feet during activities, crawling, etc. jumping in gross motor skill steps, difficulties in activities where we use both sides of the body.
The problems in crossing the midline in children are as follows;
- Handwriting is bad. Difficulty in school skills such as drawing, painting, cutting
- Delay in the formation of hand preference
- Brushing teeth, buttoning up, using cutlery, wearing shoes, etc. difficulty in activities of daily living
- Difficulty in activities that require coordination and gross motor skills. eg; jumping, skipping rope, etc.
- They may have trouble watching something visually, which may cause delayed reading skills.
- They may have difficulties calming down. Some Basic Game Ideas to Make Crossing Easier
* Draw paths with cars and trucks, especially following them in the prone position
* Baseball, throwing a ball, or hitting any object in the air against another object you can use activities such as catching
* Play sorting games: place the objects to be sorted on the left side and the containers or other spaces to be sorted on the right.
* Take diagonal steps to the music. Cross-crawling, holding a pillow, tassel, etc. You can also use fun tools such as buying things and dancing.
* Allow your children to help you with the housework and even give them roles in this regard.
So when we look at it, crossing the midline is the most important thing in a child's development. It is one of the most important gross motor skills. At the same time, this skill is important in terms of creating the child's body diagram in space.
Read: 0
