Nothing like a cuddle from DD after a hard day's work!
Oct 2007
in my own world
3,267
Crossing the midline
So my dd1 who started school this year is generally a very bright cookie and is very street smart and confident.
However, academically she is very bad. My sister is a primary school teacher and thinks that she has not crossed her midline yet (bilateral skills not developed)
After reading up on it it makes perfect sense to alot of concerns i have with dd.
So has anyones kid not yet crossed the midline and started school and when did they cross afterwArds?
Has your sister done actual testing with your DD?
What makes u think she is 'bad' academically? All children learn at differing paces and in different ways (ie: visual).
Does your DD attend a public or private school? Do u know what curriculum is being taught?
Have u spoken to your DD teacher about your concerns?
Braingym exercises can help enormously with getting the two hemispheres of the brain working together. I also believe (not backed up by any reading) that dancing with your kids can help - esp if they copy your moves and you do daggy mum-disco moves that include moving arms and legs across the middle of your body, as well as up and down. FWIW I did bellydancing for many years and it's surprising how many people are not able to repeat movements on opposites sides - but once you get them doing the basic cross-over moves they find the other stuff much easier.
Nothing like a cuddle from DD after a hard day's work!
Oct 2007
in my own world
3,267
My sis just suggested it two nights ago and i just read up and everything seemed to click.
Dd is in kinder (nsw) which i think is prep in (vic) she is 5.5.
I have spoken to her teacher about her learning but more thinking she had dyslexia but teacher was just going to monitor her.
Before she didnt read left to right even now some words eg on she would say no and off she would say for.
When reading she would lose track quite easily and find it hard to continue unless i guide her.
When she walks up the stairs she only uses one leg and not criss cross motion.
Shes not good at catching balls and is quite unco.
She has been to dancing school and loves it but we had to stop due to finances. She dances around the house and does amazing ballerina moves all the time.
Who can officially diagnose her? And does it sound like she hasnt crossed the midline?
I second the OT for assessment. Braingym are great exercises. You can pretty much do it all yourself without a therapist if you search around for the exercises or get a braingym DVD. We do play with my son like encouraging him to crawl while we're pretending to be animals, or getting him to draw while lying on his tummy or getting him to push trains along a track in front of him across his midline (he'll usually move his body to avoid crossing the midline, or swap hands).
Seeing as how she is at school, Her class teacher can recommend her for assessment - at our school this is done in house by a psychologist/counsellor and then recommendations are made for further assessment and/or treatment. But you can also see an OT. You ideally need to get onto this now, because the process can take a while and coming up to silly season, it will be hard to get anything done until next year and it will also mean that they will have a plan in place ready for school next year if anything does show up.
i'm not sure of the terminology used, but is this something that crawling on the floor could help?
I have a book (really dodgy title but its a good book) "what to do about your brain injured child" by glenn doman, that emphasises the need for kids to get one skill before the next, and if one step is missed it can have effect on many different skills. For some kids, they may need to go back to rolling to then be able to move on, but for others it will be crawling or kneeling. The therapies can be intensive for children/adults with severe disabilities but can also have amazing results.
I am wondering whether a behavioural optometry assessment might be useful. Losing track while reading might be explained by difficulties with visual processing.
Have only just seen this and thought that I would add that Gymbaroo exercises are helpful for crossing the midline. There are many that they do in their 3years+ class and school readiness class. One in particular is called '"crocodiles".
1st stage - homolateral
Have your child lay on their stomach on the floor. Have their head facing right. Bend their right knee up and their right arm so that their fingers are almost touching their nose. Massage (eg roll with a rolling pin) down the right side of their body, telling them that this is their bent side, this is their right side. Then do a different massage down the left side (say walking with your fingers) and tell them that this is their straight side, this is their left side.
Get the child to swap sides - turn head to the left, bend left knee up and left arm to tickle their nose. You may have to position them early on, but after practice they should be able to get into position on their own. Repeat the massage for left and right sides (rolling pin on left this time and finger walking on right).
Repeat the swapping sides, using a clap as a signal to swap sides.
Once they are proficient at this (able to effectively swap sides without assistance) you can move to cross pattern
This time position so that when facing the right side right arm is still tickling nose, but left leg is bent up. Massage is diagonally across the bent body parts then straight body parts. Then clap to swap and they need to turn head to the left, bend left arm and right leg. Repeat until they can make the changes fluidly.
You can do this exercise every day.
There are a number of other ones - eg passing a small beanbag around your waist behind you, making actions to songs (like the wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish, where you need to swish right across your body), making diagonal stripes with a ribbon on a stick from top left to bottom right and vice versa, marching with swinging arms and you can probably make up a few - anything where you need to have one part of your body moving across the midline or coordinating left and right movements of different body parts.
Nothing like a cuddle from DD after a hard day's work!
Crossing the midline
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