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Posted By: ElizabethN Crossing the midline? - 05/07/12 10:23 PM
I hear this phrase from time to time in this forum, and I don't have a good understanding of what it means. Is it just the ability to reach across the body with a hand? Is that really difficult? I've never really even thought to notice whether DD8 can do it. I presume she can, but I haven't really watched.
Posted By: polarbear Re: Crossing the midline? - 05/07/12 10:31 PM
Ha! I posted about crossing the midline this morning and I was thinking.... gah.. I hope no one asks why it's important because my brain is too full of end-of-the-school-year-mush to remember what the implications are. Anyway, it's been important for two of my kiddos - my ds with dysgraphia and my dd who had vision challenges.

I seriously am having a total brain freeze re what it means and why it's important though - so I'll be interested in reading the answers. Maybe after I've picked my kids up from school and had a chance to take a nap I'll remember smile

polarbear
Posted By: ElizabethN Re: Crossing the midline? - 05/07/12 10:43 PM
Lol - I think your post was the one that caused me to ask the question. I'll have to see if DD can do it once she comes home from school, especially because we are wondering about the possibility of dysgraphia with her.

Her Beery scores were pretty interesting - just got those from the OT this morning. Her visual perceptual scores are excellent, while her motor coordination skills are low. She was also given the TVPS-3, which she did very well on. (It looks like she hit the ceiling on three out of four subtest of basic processes, and even her lowest score, sequential memory, was two-sigma out.)
Posted By: LNEsMom Re: Crossing the midline? - 05/08/12 04:11 AM
master of none's description is good! I think of it as related to handedness. For most people, reaching with your right (or left) hand is so natural we don't even think about it. But for some kids it doesn't come so easy and either they can't do it or they have to think about it alot. Even before I learned about these things, I was concerned about my DS because I wasn't sure if he was "really" right handed or left handed. He writes right handed, but does all sports activities left handed. People will say, "oh that happens all the time" but first of all, it doesn't, and second of all that doesn't mean it is just a quirk and doesn't have important consequences (balance, visual-motor, etc.) MY DS was also a late crawler, started crawling after he was already pulling up and cruising furniture and really only crawled a month before he started walking. He also had lots of ear infections as an infant and toddler and because of this was a relatively late talker. Supposedly too many ear infections can cause problems in the above areas as well because we don't really think about how important the inner ear is to our balance and coordination, as well as hearing.

I have spent many an hour worrying about how much these issues may be preventing DS from showing his full potential. How much of his concentration and energy is focused on coping with these things? I haven't had him intelligence tested, but I am considering it if it would give some insight into how much of a toll these things might be taking on him. Because he seems to have developed really good coping skills, and it is hard to determine the impact at this point.
Posted By: mountainmom2011 Re: Crossing the midline? - 05/08/12 04:14 PM
@LNEsMom - sounds a lot like my 8 yo dd who is dyslexic and was late to pick a hand. She writes with her left hand but will do certain things with her right hand. Last fall they had a field day competition for her entire school. At the bullseye game with a velcro ball She had 4 tosses, with her 1st toss she threw it with her left hand, 2nd toss with her right, 3rd toss with her left, 4th toss with her right... she got the bullseye on every single one and got the highest score in the entire school (all the way up to 6th grade).

She was a very early crawler (5 months) but didn't crawl for long before she started cruising (at 6 months) and walking (at 8 months). She also had problems as a toddler with fluid in her ears and ear infections.
Posted By: LNEsMom Re: Crossing the midline? - 05/09/12 02:45 AM
This is reminding me that I should really try to figure out a way to get DS evaluated for things like dyslexia or visual processing. His OT doesn't really do that and the school doesn't see a problem because his academic performance is above grade level, so he "can't" have an LD, right? Who do you see about dyslexia? I have looked into an evaluation with a developmental optometrist, but it is insanely expensive, not covered by insurance and seems to be a bit controversial regarding whether the therapies are effective.

On the surface, he seems fine but I just have this nagging feeling that there is something going on there that hasn't been addressed yet. But then I also think maybe I am just being an anxious mother and should just let well enough be.

Sigh, sorry I've hijacked this thread a bit. This discussion just brought up these thoughts in my head again.
Posted By: ultramarina Re: Crossing the midline? - 05/09/12 02:50 AM
I never crawled as a baby and I have a hard time doing things that "flip" motions from side to side of the body or that require the diferent halves of me to do different things, such as choreographed dance.
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