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The quote holds true for most of the things in life and so it does for the body's midline. It is an invisible line... we cannot see it and most of us don't even know about it. But nevertheless it does exist. its an imaginary line that divides the body in left and right halves. The previous blogs have spoken too much about it but with this blog and for many more to come we shall answer the "WHY's":

Why does this midline even exist?

Why does midline crossing evolve in the first place?

How does midline crossing evolve?

So, in simple terms we are going to explore the fundamentals of this topic and starting this time from the level zero. 

Upcoming next..... sunday

Why does this midline even exist?.....the neurological approach

Have you been thinking about your child's midline crossing troubles? Have you noticed any problems with bilateral skills in your child? Then definitely some of our questions must been storming your mind? So we continue to place the pieces of puzzle and here we are with more answers.....

What other problems can occur when a child has crossing the body’s mid-line difficulties?

• The child may avoid Pencil based activities and Reading

•The child may become angry or frustrated when engaging in fine motor activities.

•difficulty in performing self-care tasks independently (age influenced).

•difficulty in coordinating both sides of the body.

What can be done to improve the ability to cross the body’s mid-line?

•Bilateral integration skills (using both sides of the body at the same time).
•Core stability and trunk rotation to encourage the physical movement of crossing the body’s mid-line.
•Hand dominance: The consistent use of one hand or foot most often that allows refine movement control to develop.
•Planning and sequencing: The ability to follow multi-step instructions to achieve a defined outcome or end point.
•Body awareness: The information that muscles and joints send to our brain that tells us about our body position
•Daily Life Skills: Incorporate some mid-line crossing activities into your daily life skills (eg set up socks and shoes for dressing on the wrong side of the body when the child is sitting so they are forced to cross the body’s mid-line to dress.

Activities to help develop the ability to cross the midline:

Pop bubbles with only one hand (they will have to reach across their body to pop the bubbles floating on the opposite side).

Reach for bean bags, balls, stuffed animals, or other objects across midline, then throwing at a target.

Draw large figure eights (the infinity sign or an 8 turned on its side) on paper, on the floor with a finger, in the air with a finger, or drive a matchbox car around a figure eight pattern.

Let the child play with sand, scooping sand from one side of the body and putting it into a bucket on the opposite side of the body without switching hands.

Let the child pretend to drive a car with a ball in his/her hands to use as a steering wheel and encourage the crossing of his/her arms as he/she turns the ‘steering wheel’ 

Touch the opposite elbow and knee.

Cross one foot over the other while walking sideways.

Knee slap walk- Walk around raising each knee while touching/slapping it with the opposite hand (or elbow). Change it to a skip while touch.

Windmill-stand with feet spread apart and arms extended out to the sides. Bend over at waist and tap right hand to left foot. Stand back up and then bend and tap left hand to right foot.

Hold your nose, then cross the other hand over and grab your opposite ear.

Write your name in the air while rotating your foot in a circle clockwise.

Wall washing and make sure the arms cross midline while scrubbing.

What activities can help improve crossing the body’s mid-line?

  

Craft: Threading beads, cutting and pasting, folding paper.

Finger Puppets: Placing finger puppets on one hand and encouraging the child to remove the puppets with the opposite hand.

Blocks and Percussion: Getting the child to bang blocks or percussion instruments together in their mid-line.

Twister: Playing ‘Twister’.

Simon Says: Playing ‘Simon Says’.

Streamers: Getting the child to make streamers or ribbon circles and patterns in front of their mid-line (use two hands together or one in each hand).

Marching games using their arms and legs.

Stickers: Placing stickers on one arm and encouraging the child to remove them with the opposite hand.

Why do we need therapy if child feels difficulties in crossing the body’s mid-line?

Therapeutic intervention to help a child with crossing mid-line difficulties is important to:

•Help a child develop hand dominance.

•Help prepare a child for pencil skill and fine motor tasks in school 

•Help a child to complete age appropriate self care tasks (e.g. dressing).

•Help a child improve their gross motor skills such as kicking, hitting balls and running.

•Help improve the ability to visually track effectively across a page so that literacy skills develop easily (e.g. so that reading is fluent).

Please follow our blog and feel free contact us and our website www.healthymomshome.com

Play based therapy for kids with midline crossing disorders and all types of rehabilitation services are available at all outlets and portals of Healthy Mom 
Contact details: whatsapp number: 9755700579,9453443603(no calls accepted, only whatsapp messaging )

Email: nootan.nayana724@gmail.com

geet.tyagi7@gmail.com

Website: www.healthymomshome.com

Have you been thinking about your child's midline crossing troubles? Have you noticed any problems with bilateral skills in your child? Then definitely some of our questions must been storming your mind? So here we are with answers.....

What is the body’s mid-line? 

The body’s mid-line is an imaginary line down the centre of the body that divides the body into left and right.

What is crossing the body’s mid-line? 

Crossing the body’s mid-line is the ability to reach across the middle of the body with the arms and legs. This allows children to cross over their body to perform a task on the opposite side of their body. By the age of 3 or 4 to 8 years old, child should have mastered the bilateral skill (using both sides of the body together) called “crossing the midline”.

Crossing the body’s mid-line is an important developmental skill needed for many everyday tasks such as writing, reaching towards your foot to put on a shoe and sock with both hands and hitting a ball with a bat

 

Why is crossing the body’s mid-line important and what are the effects on children who don not cross the body's midline?

Crossing the midline of body is required for the appropriate development of various skills.

When a child spontaneously crosses the mid-line with the dominant hand, then the dominant hand gets the practice needed to develop good fine motor skills by repeated consistent hand dominance.

If a child avoids crossing the mid-line, then both hands tend to get equal practice at developing skills and the child’s true handedness may be delayed.

Children who have difficulty crossing midline may appear ambidextrous because they are often observed using both hands, but they actually have a hidden neuroprocessing issue. Both sides of their brains are not communicating, resulting in decreased coordination, decreased motor control of movements and difficulties achieving higher level skills. Often, these children end up with two unskilled hands

Difficulty crossing the mid-line also makes it difficult to visually track a moving object from one side to the other or track from left to right when reading, meaning reading can also be delayed.

While the child is moving his/her eyes from left to right across the page, the eyes will stop at midline to blink and refocus; however, when this happens, the child will very frequently lose his/her place on the line and become confused as to where they left off.

It also affects handwriting, as diagonal lines cross the midline, and the child may need to stop in the middle of the page to switch hands when writing from left to right. Many self care and daily living skills require crossing midline, example, perfecting the skill of putting socks or shoes on requires one hand to cross over to the other side of the body.

How can we say child has problems with crossing their body’s mid-line?

If a child has difficulties crossing the body mid-line they might:

These children generally have difficulty coordinating gross motor patterns (e.g. crawling, skipping, star-jumps) and can’t participate in sports that require good coordination (e.g. Basketball, baseball, netball, tennis). As it is expected for this age group that most self care skills are independent or requiring only minimal assistance, the child suffers from increased pressure and anxiety in a school age. 

We pause here, but we shall be back with more on this next week.... 

We will continue to update you more on bilateral skills and midline crossing disorders and bring to you more information on:

1.What other problems can occur when a child has crossing the body’s mid-line difficulties?

2.Do you know what activities can help improve crossing the body’s mid-line?

3.Why do we need therapy if child feels difficulties in crossing the body’s mid-line?

4.If left untreated what can difficulties crossing the body’s mid-line lead to?

Please follow our blog and feel free contact us and visit on our website www.healthymomshome.com

Contact details:whatsapp number: 9755700579,9453443603(no calls accepted, only whatsapp messaging )

Email: nootan.nayana724@gmail.com

geet.tyagi7@gmail.com

Website: www.healthymomshome.com

   Do you have a child who has difficulties crossing the body's mid-line :

* They might have not yet established a hand preference, sometimes Using their left and sometimes Using their right to draw, color, Write, eat, and throw.

* They might have difficulty coordinating gross motor patterns (e.g. Crawling, skipping, star-jumps)

   

* They might have difficult keeping up in class due to poor handwriting Skills.

* They might have difficult can’t participating in sports that require good Coordination (e.g. Basketball, baseball, netball, tennis).

* They might have increased pressure and anxiety in a school aged  child As it is expected that most self care skills are independent or requiring only minimal assistance.

Are you thinking about this and is your child facing these type of problem which was neglected by u please concentrate on your child ....give some attention and time ....don't take for granted if your child having this problem this might be crossing the body's midline disorder because By the age of 3 or 4 to 8 years old, child should have mastered the using both sides of the body together called “crossing the midline”. 

1.What is crossing the body’s mid-line?

2.Why is crossing the body’s mid-line important?

3.How can we say child has problems with crossing their body’s mid-line?

4.Affects on children who do not develop the bilateral skill.

5.What other problems can occur when a child has crossing the body’s mid-line difficulties?

6.Do you know what activities can help improve crossing the body’s mid-line?

7.Why do we need therapy if child feels difficulties in crossing the body’s mid-line?

8.If left untreated what can difficulties crossing the body’s mid-line lead to?

To know about all answers of these questions  you can follow our blog and feel free contect us and visit on our website www.healthymomshome.com

W sitting..... management

W-sitting एक असामान्य बैठने की अवस्था है जिसके कई negative परिणाम होते हैं। ये position अगर लम्बे समय तक maintain की जाये तो ये lower limb के development पर बुरा असर डाल सकती है। इस position को manage करने और इसके consequences (go to link: w sitting consequences ) से बचने के लिए एक systematic approach ज़रूरी है। इसीलिए हम इस problem को cause and effect basis पर solve करेंगे। यदि W-sitting पर पिछले blogs (go to link: w sitting what and why ) , को ध्यान से पढ़ें तो आप ये समझ सकते हैं की W-sitting के तीन प्रमुख कारन हैं:

1. habitual posture या आदतन इस position में बैठना 
2. poor core strength यानि core की muscles की कमज़ोरी या उनका ठीक तरह से काम न करना 
3. mal-alingment at hip मतलब hip joint पर joint या muscle related कोई समस्या 

Habitual posture या आदतन इस position में बैठना: इस विषय को पहले ही विस्तार में discuss कर चुके हैं हम (go to link: w sitting altenatives ) बच्चे को यदि regularly टोका जाये और उसे दूसरी पोजीशन में बैठने के लिए encourage किया जाये तो habitual W-sitting posture improve किया जा सकता है। 

Poor core strength यानि core की muscles की कमज़ोरी या उनका ठीक तरह से काम न करना: core strengthening exercises की मदद से core conditioning की जाती है जिससे trunk control improve होता है और postural stability बढ़ती है। 

Mal-alingment at hip मतलब hip joint पर joint या muscle related कोई समस्या: hip joint पर internal rotation होने के दो कारण हो सकते हैं: hip internal rotator muscles की tightness या hip external rotator muscles की weakness, नतीज़तन इन muscle groups को flexibility या strength conditioning respectively दी जाती है। 

Disclaimer : the information and views in the blog are personal experiences and details from Physical therapy clinic as observed by the Therapist. Any use of above information should only be undertaken under medical supervision of a certified Physical therapist

This blog superficially enumerates treatment and management categories and explains basic guidelines. For detailed management and exclusive, individualized management please contact us personally on any of the below mentioned numbers/ emails.
Contact details: whatsapp number: 9755700579, 9453443603 (no calls accepted, only whatsapp messaging)

Email: nootan.nayana724@gmail.com
geet.tyagi7@gmail.com
Website: www.healthymomshome.com

With love. ...your Physical Therapist is a health blog under Healthy Mom

www.healthymomshome.com

             ::::::::::::::::*************Promotional Blog*****************:::::::::::::::::::::::::
Play time is an important part of growing kids's daily routine. It is not just an activity burst but more. Play time is the time for exploration and physical mobility. Exploration of environment and learning to manipulate and navigate in and around the surrounding in which child grows is an essential part of growth and development of child. Therefore, we here at HEALTHY MOM try to integrate play time with our treatment strategies. We utilize interesting games and play based exercises to attain our treatment goals. Play based therapy not only servers our clinical purpose working to improve child's motor development but also integrates environmental explorations and holds child's attention. We make special efforts to balance the play and therapy aspects of this program. This procedure improves learning and prepares the child for educational activities.

Some games and play based therapy that we use at our HEALTHY MOM centers

Beads manipulation: 
Therapy:different sized, shaped and colored beads for fine grip and prehension training.
Play: beads are attractive and intersting
Learning: colours, shapes, numbers

Functional play:
Therapy: sensory training, fine movements training, functional task training
Play: imitating adult activities, pin point activity
Learning: fruits, colors, numbers

Building blocks: 
Therapy: eye hand coordination, sensory training,
Play: connecting and stacking objects is a fun game and canalso be used as a story telling tool
Learning: identifying colors, animals, shapes, textures, enhance architectural skills

Magnetic numbers:
Therapy: reaching training, pick and place coordination training
Play: magnets are fun for kids
Learning: colors, numbers

Balls: 
Therapy: pick and place, forearm and wrist training
Play: balls are the most attractive toys
Learning: texture, colors, shape, opening and closing

Clay:
Therapy: grip and prehension training, fine motor training, hand strengthening, writing improvement training, tripod grip training
Play: interesting and fun game with molding
Learning: texture, color, molding, shapes

Peg boards: 
Therapy: in hand coordination, tripod grip reinforcement
Play: interesting fitting games
Learning: shapes, vegetables, colors

Stacker:
Therapy: eye hand coordination, learning balance concepts
Play: interesting and attention holding
Learning: shape, fixing, balancing, organizing, texture

Starlink:
Therapy: in hand coordination, movement planning and integration
Play: connecting toys are fun and easy to play with
Learning: brain exerciser, innovative building, colors, shapes, linking skills

Coordination mat:
Therapy: coordination  and balance training, gait training, sensory training
Play: directional and attractive
Learning: stepping, balance, reach

Hoopla Rings:
Therapy:  coordination  and balance training, gait and jumping training, proprioception training
Play: fun and physically challenging
Learning: stepping, balance, jumping, analyzing distance, depth and orientation

Nuts and bolts:

Therapy: in hand coordination, 

Play: fun twisting game

Learning: assemble, open close, colors, fine manipulation, enhance architectural skills  

Shapes:

Therapy: in hand coordination, upper limb and hand training 

Play: fun matching and placing game

Learning: shapes, fitting skills, colors, texture

Alpha-neumerical peices:
Therapy: school based educational training
Play: cute little alphabets give living alphabets feel
Learning: educational enhancement,
Recognition, memory










Animal alphabets puzzle :
Therapy: eye habd coordination, school based educational training 
Play: fun puzzle solving activity
 Learning : puzzle fitting and solving, educational enhancement, memory,  recognition





P. S. : play based therapy for kids is available at all outlets and portals of Healthy Mom
Contact details:whatsapp number: 9755700579,9453443603(no calls accepted, only whatsapp messaging )
Email: nootan.nayana724@gmail.com
geet.tyagi7@gmail.com
Website: www.healthymomshome.com