CROSSING MIDLINE AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

Babies new experiences enhance brain development.  Each new experience creates a new connection and repetition of that experience helps influence the speed of response for that task or activity.  Of course we want to help our children respond to their environments and experiences with the greatest ease possible allowing for improved learning opportunities and success with tasks. The brain is divided into many parts, each of which is responsible for an individual action.  For example, the area of the brain know as the "Broca" area is responsible for language, the cerebellum is responsible for coordination and on and on it goes.  In truth, the brain does not work part by part but rather multiple parts of the brain are working simultaneously to complete the complex motor actions of human beings. On a larger scale the brain is divided into two parts that we call the right brain and left brain. The brain will work with greatest efficiency when the right and left sides of the brain work together easily. One very significant task that requires midline crossing, for older children, is reading and writing. In order to read and write a child must be able to work from one side of the page to the other. So yes, how we encourage our babies now will help facilitate their educational needs later. We therefore encourage our children to engage in activities that require crossing the midline and by doing so we encourage the right and left brain to work together. Cross lateral movement patterns such as the right arm moving over to the left side of the body to retrieve an item is one example of midline crossing. 

Our next post will discuss play and activities that will promote midline crossing.