Crossing Midline - Page 7 of 10

Cotton Balls Music

Have the children sit in a circle.

Give each child a clothespin and a cotton ball.

Instruct the children to pick up and drop the cotton ball on the lap of the child sitting to their right when the music starts.

When the music stops, each child should pick up his cotton ball using the clothespin and raise their hand.

You can make it into a game by giving an additional cotton ball to a child who raised their hand but did not have a cotton ball caught on his clothespin.

The child with the least number of cotton balls at the end of the game wins.

Game Variations:

Instead of using a clothespin, you might want to use tongs or tweezers.
If you are playing with 1 child, you may want to just use one cotton ball and see who has it when the music stops.
After a few times passing the cotton balls to the right, switch and have the passing go left.

Matching Socks Game

Present the child with a clean box/basket/bucket of separated pairs of socks.

Provide the child with additional empty baskets, one for each member of the family.

Show the child one sock and ask him to find the other sock that looks the same (i.e. the matching sock).

Fold the socks together (or have your child fold them to work on additional skills such as motor planning and eye-hand coordination) and ask the child to put the pair of socks in the right basket, based on whose socks are they (mom’s, dad’s, child’s, sister’s, etc.).

Stamp it up

Ask the child to hold the stamp with his/her thumb, index finger, and middle finger.

You may want to set the stamp pad on the opposite side to the hand holding the stamp so that it encourages the child to reach over his/her midline.

To promote the development of visual motor skills have the child stamp between two vertical lines, horizontal lines, or around a circle.

To encourage wrist extension and stabilization place the stamping paper on an inclined surface.

Capture the Marble

For this activity, you need 2 players (adult and child or two children).

Sit or stand across from each other at a table.

Each person should hold a plastic cup in one hand.

One person rolls a marble to the other person at a slow pace.

The second person places their cup on top of the marble trapping the marble under the cup.

Then they push their cup towards the first person sending the marble rolling to them at a moderate pace.

Then the first person captures the marble and this back and forth game continues on.

This activity can be graded by using a tennis ball or a ping-pong ball instead of the marble as well as using a large round container instead of the plastic cup.

In addition, you can be rolling the ball fast or slow, follow a path when passing the ball from one another, catching the ball as it rolls off the edge of the table, or using your hands instead of cups.

Colored Pipes

Label each roll or tube by color.

Attach the tubes onto a wall, door, or window using some tape or clear self-adhesive magic cover.

Place pom-poms in a container.

Ask the child to kneel while sorting the colored pom-poms into the right tube.

Use tongs to work on hand strength and grasp.