Sunday, November 25, 2012

Fun Crossing MIdline Activities for Infant, Baby, and Toddler


 
Our last post described why crossing midline activities were beneficial for your baby's Brain development.  Here are some ideas for fun crossing midline activities for your baby at every stage.

For infants - Tracking tasks such as following an object or a moving mobile from side to side. Tracking in this manner engages the body visually in its first opportunity to cross midline from the right to the left side and back.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             For babies – crawling and side to side reaching activities, encouraged by you, such as having them hold a desired item in one hand so that they need to use the other hand to cross over and retrieve another item, are examples of midline crossing in play. Another activity that facilitates visual midline crossing is using puppets moving in different directions that encourage a delighted baby to follow with his eyes.

For toddlers –Games like patty cake, bubble popping, passing the ball around in a circle while holding the ball with two hands, rolling a toy car along a path, turning the wheel of a toy car all the way around with one hand only, and pretending to be an elephant while on all fours swinging one hand right to left like the elephant swings its trunk, are more examples of midline crossing in play.

Now that you are aware of the importance and benefit of midline crossing activities you will know what games to encourage during playtime.

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