MID LINE CROSSING

AILEEN O’ BRIEN
  The ability to cross the midline is important on the
Why Is Midline physical level as well as on the brain level

Crossing  On the brain level, a lack of midline crossing may

indicate that the left and right sides of the brain (the left
Important? and right hemispheres) are not communicating well
together
 The left and right brain hemispheres communicate
across a mass of tissue called the corpus callosum
  Each hemisphere carries out different tasks
Why Is Midline  important for each hemisphere to communicate with
Crossing the other across the corpus callosum in order

Important? to coordinate learning and movement.

  On a physical level, crossing the midline emerges as
the child develops bilateral coordination skills. First,
the two sides of the body need to learn to work well
together doing the same thing (e.g. pulling, pushing,
How Crossing the crawling)
Midline Develops  As the child learns to coordinate a strong hand which
is doing something skilled (e.g. cutting) and
an assistant hand which is helping (e.g. holding the
paper), the ability to spontaneously cross the midline
develops even more
How Crossing  Another vital factor in crossing the midline, and that
the Midline is trunk rotation

Develops
 The child has turned her lower body WITH the upper
body, so the shoulders and the hips have both turned.
 There is no trunk rotation, and no midline crossing!
 Using this position, the child’s upper body has turned
around (rotated), while her lower body (hips and legs)
remains facing forward.
 There is some trunk rotation and the child is crossing
the midline with her dominant hand
 Crossing the midline is a marker for
overall coordination, bilateral coordination (efficient
use of both hands together), core strength, and other
developmental skills.
 The ability to cross midline indicates that both sides of
the brain are working efficiently together and
correlates strongly with a child’s reading, handwriting,
and other motor skills.
 Crossing midline requires the involvement of many
skills including: body awareness, hand-eye
coordination, muscular strength, and most importantly
brain communication.
 Crossing midline builds new pathways in the brain
which are building blocks for the development of
additional complex motor and cognitive skills such as
reading, writing, self-care tasks, and physical activity.
 When a child has difficulties crossing the midline, it can
affect his/her ability to read.
 While the child is moving their eyes across the page,
their eyes may stop in the middle and frequently lose
their place.
 It also affects handwriting since a child must cross the
midline in order to write from left to right; the child may
need to stop in the middle of the page to switch hands.
 Many self-care and daily living skills require crossing
the midline as well (such as putting on socks/shoes and
brushing teeth).
 Lastly, the inability to cross midline impacts eating.
Children may have trouble properly moving food
around in order to chew and swallow.
 Children who do not cross the midline often do not
develop a hand dominance (appearing to be
ambidextrous), which should be determined by age 5.
 Children will be observed using both hands during
drawing, eating, colouring, and throwing

 Children who do not cross midline often show

symptoms including: poor fine motor control (immature
pencil grasp & manipulation skills), poor bilateral
coordination (catching a ball, cutting skills)
 poor upper/lower body coordination (jumping jacks,
riding a bike), and poor right/left discrimination.