Total Communication, LLC.

Happy Speech-Language Pathologists Day! We are thankful for Jenna Grantz and Lily Caroline Horn

Over on the website, we have a resource all about preschool midline crossing.
These age-appropriate activities target midline crossing and are great for motor planning, visual motor skills, and brain breaks for the preschool age. https://www.theottoolbox.com/crossing-midline-activities-for-preschoolers/

There are some early warning signs we might see in the preschooler who struggles with crossing their midline. When we see a difficulty with the integrated motor patterns, this can be an indicator for various challenges.

🚩Some of the ways that difficulties with preschool crossing midline will present as:

>>Not developing a dominant hand. Students use the left hand for left sided tasks and the right side for right sided tasks. https://www.theottoolbox.com/hand-dominance-laterality-functional-activities-kids/
>>Showing delays in crawling, or an atypical crawling pattern. Here is a great article on Cross Crawling Activities. https://www.theottoolbox.com/cross-crawl-exercises/
>>Rotating or turning their entire body to retrieve objects on the other side of their body instead of reaching across the body to the other side
>>Having difficulty with age-appropriate self-care tasks like dressing or grooming activities
>>Skipping or doing jumping jacks in an uncoordinated manner. Check out this post on Gross Motor Midline Crossing Exercises​: https://www.theottoolbox.com/crossing-midline-march-gross-motor
>>Difficulty making a horizontal line across a piece of paper (may stop in the middle and switch hands, or pause visually) or forming letters
>>Visual perceptual difficulties: https://www.theottoolbox.com/visual-perceptual-skills/
>>Challenges with age-appropriate literacy skills (identifying letters, following pictures in a story- due to difficulty with visual tracking across the midline. Here is info on visual tracking: https://www.theottoolbox.com/what-is-visual-tracking/

If you see these things in the preschool years, it's ok! Kids develop at different rates. Try adding some play ideas that target these gross motor movements: https://www.theottoolbox.com/crossing-midline-activities-for-preschoolers/