Crossing Midline - Page 5 of 6

Cut Me a Tree

For this activity, you will need to use brown and green construction paper.

Have the child trace your hand on the green paper, then trace one or two of their own. On the brown paper, ask the child to draw a large rectangle (depending on the child’s developmental skills, you might have him trace or copy the rectangle). Let the child cut the traced hands and rectangle he drew.

On a large piece of construction paper, have the child glue the large hand on the rectangle, fingers pointing down, then the other hands, fingers pointing down as well (for a blooming tree, have the child glue the traced hands with the fingers pointing up). Using colored foam sheets, let the child draw and cut other shapes, then glue them on the tree as ornaments or flowers. To promote pincer grasp, have the child use the stickers for additional decorations.

Marshmallow Stamper

Place paint in a shallow bowl or a paper plate. Have the child dip a piece of marshmallow or foam in the paint and stamp it onto the construction paper.

You can let the child create his own picture or if you would like to work on visual-motor skills, you can have the child trace lines, shapes, and letters.

You can use small or big marshmallow for this activity.

For children that tend to place objects in their mouths, you might want to try using Jell-O mixed with a small amount of water and use it as your paint.

Fall Leaves

Use a brown construction paper and draw a rectangle to be used as the tree’s trunk.

Let the child cut out the rectangle to promote visual motor skills.

Ask the child to glue the brown rectangle on piece of white construction paper.

Using the crayons or markers, have the child draw a few branches coming out of the trunk of the tree on the white construction paper.

Instruct the child to mark a few dots using the glue on each branch.

Place some leaves on the table on the child’s non dominant side.

Provide the child with tweezers or tongs and have him catch one leaf at a time and move across the midline to place it on top of a glue dots.

Repeat until all leaves are glued on the tree.

Midline Passing

This ball passing game can be done in groups or during a 1×1 session.

Sit back to back with the child. Make sure the child is sitting cross-legged or on their knees. While seated, pass a ball or any other object around to each other.

Make sure to switch directions after a few times.

Make sure the child is crossing the midline while passing the ball without rotating the trunk.

Chalkdraw

For this activity, you can have the child draw on a chalkboard or on the sidewalk.

While large chalks would work better on the sidewalk, try to use small (or even broken) chalk to promote a tripod grasp.