Crossing midline is one’s ability to reach across the centre of their body with their arms and legs crossing over to the opposite side. This is a very important developmental skill that takes time for children to develop. It is a pertinent skill required for reading and writing, completing self care tasks, as well as, for many sports.
For children who have not yet established this, you may see them switch hands when drawing and cutting. If a child avoids crossing midline, it will be difficult for them to establish a hand dominance, which will ultimately affect the progression of their fine motor development.
A child will first develop their bilateral coordination skills; the two sides of the body will learn to work together at the same time to complete a task. A child will then start to use one hand as their dominant hand while the other one will be used as a “helper hand”. For example, the dominant hand writes with the pencil while the helper hand stabilizes the paper from moving.
Some activities that will help to work on developing a child’s ability to cross midline are: hand games (patty cake); crafts, Simon says, twister, passing a ball from side to side with another person, drawing diagonal line to connect the right side of the page to the left side, tennis, golf, baseball, etc.
It’s important to understand that each child develops at different speeds, and some children may need a little more encouragement and practice to develop certain skills. If you feel your child is having difficulty crossing midline, contacting a therapist may help to you to better understand how to address your concerns.
