Imagine that an invisible line runs down the centre of your body, dividing your left and right sides. That’s your ‘midline.’ When you reach across your midline with an arm or leg, to perform a task on the opposite side of your body, you’re ‘crossing your midline.’
Development of midline crossing
Babies as young as 4 months old can start to develop their midline crossing. At this stage, they start to follow a moving object across their midline. As they grow, they will start to play with both their feet, turn over to reach for objects, bring finger food from the table to their mouth, flip through the pages of a book, and so on. These skills for crossing the midline will continue to develop and be refined until they fully mature at around the age of 9.
Why is crossing the midline important?
In children, the ability to cross the midline is an important developmental skill because it promotes the coordination and communication of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It also encourages bilateral coordination, as well as the development of a dominant hand and fine motor skills, which are needed for an individual to efficiently carry out daily tasks including changing clothes, using a fork and spoon to eat, tying shoe laces, dancing, driving and more.
In order to cross their midline well, children must have sufficient control and use of both sides of the body, have good body awareness and trunk control. Before their midline crossing is well established, children usually engage in tasks using mainly one side of their body. For example, they would reach for something that’s placed on their left side with only their left hand.
Some examples of daily tasks that cross the midline include:
– Drawing a horizontal line across a page without switching hands.
– Sitting cross-legged on the floor.
– Inserting puzzle pieces using the dominant right hand when the puzzle is placed on the left side of the body.
– Putting on a shoe or sock with both hands.
– Hitting a ball with a bat.
– Drawing, writing and cutting
Difficulties in crossing the midline
Babies as young as 4 months old can start to develop their midline crossing. At this stage, they start to follow a moving object across their midline. As they grow, they will start to play with both their feet, turn over to reach for objects, bring finger food from the table to their mouth, flip through the pages of a book, and so on. These skills for crossing the midline will continue to develop and be refined until they fully mature at around the age of 9.
Children who find it hard to cross their midline may also face difficulties, such as:
– Swap hands midway when writing, drawing, painting or colouring.
– Uses only the right hand for activities on the right side of the body and the same on the left.
– Difficulty visually tracking things from one side of the body to the other, which includes following text when reading.
– Unable to kick a ball using both feet.
– Difficulty crawling, skipping and jumping jacks, which require the coordination of gross motor patterns.
– Struggles to engage in pencil-based activities.
– Gets frustrated when engaged in fine motor activities.
– Faces challenges when performing age-appropriate self-care tasks independently.
How to help your child practice crossing their midline
There are various ways to encourage your child to cross their midline in their daily lives. Here are some activities that promote crossing the midline:
– Banging objects together in the midline, such as playing percussion instruments.
– Throwing, catching, and kicking balls.
– Popping bubbles in the air.
– Drawing large figure-eights on paper with a pencil or in the air.
– Making crafts like threading beads, cutting and pasting, folding paper.
– Placing stickers on one side of the body and having your child remove them with their opposite hand.
– Marching games using their arms and legs.
– Placing socks and shoes on the wrong side of the body when your child is sitting, so they are encouraged to cross the body’s midline.
Although simple, these activities can also help your child to develop their bilateral integration skills (using both sides of the body at the same time), life and self-help skills, core stability and trunk rotation, planning and sequencing, and body awareness.
When to seek help
If you notice that your child is having difficulties with crossing their midline, it is best to consult an Occupational Therapist, who can help identify the delays and offer strategies that can help your child to overcome them. Should you have any concerns about your child’s physical development, please don’t hesitate to book an appointment with one of our occupational therapists.
This article was reviewed by The Energy Source’s Principal Occupational Therapist, Jacqlynn Teong.