A few years ago, I sat in a friend’s home and read some books about the midline movement. This concept deals with how certain fundamental movements affect the ability to learn, to read, to write, to speak, and other school-related activities.
Missing a Milestone
Some children skip crawling (or crawl very little) and proceed right to walking. This, along with other physically foundational movements causes the brain to miss a developmental milestone. Specialists are recognizing how helping children through various exercises has a tremendous impact on improving the education of those with learning challenges such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, Central auditory processing disorder, ADD, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, PDD, and others.
Hand/Eye Dominance
One thing to note in terms of midline is hand/eye dominance. Children who have the same eye and same hand dominant often do not struggle with midline issues; however, those who are right hand dominant and left eye dominant or vice versa may find that midline exercises will improve their ability to focus, to read, and to write. Our daughter does not have a right eye, thus she is left eye dominant, yet right-handed. We practiced some brain exercises with her in hopes of improving her ability to read, write, and focus. Early on we wondered if she would
If you want to investigate this further, here are some links to check out:
Brain Integration Therapy Manual by D. Craft http://stores.diannecraft.org/Detail.bok?no=1
Brain Integration Therapy http://www.compwellness.net/eGuide/brainint.htm
The Midline Movements http://gigli.tripod.com/therapies/midline.htm
Crossing the Midline (simply defined) http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=1858
Review of the book The Out of Sync Child http://www.childrensdisabilities.info/sensory_integration/bksync.html
Brain Gym Exercises http://esl.about.com/od/englishlessonplans/a/braingym.htm
Brain Gym book review http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews32790.html
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