Classroom Tips for Left Handedness

Piggy backing off of the lateralization topic from my last post, I thought I would add a post regarding tips for left handedness... the information below was taken from a lecture/workshop that I attended, which is referenced at the end of the post:

My very own 14 year old left handed son, printing on some paper for me.

-Left handed kids often look like they don’t have hand dominance.  This is often because they do not have good lateralization (lateralization is the way that the brain is specialized).

Classroom observation:  Left handed kids often sit out of midline, and at times have difficulty with the left to right progression for writing and reading.
adaptation:  put 2 pieces of masking tape on each side of their desk so that the child knows where to sit in relation to their desk.  Put t shaped green masking tape in the center of the desk.  Then, put a green piece of tape on the left side of the desk and a red piece of tape on the right side of the desk to give a visual cue of the left to right progression (green means go from the left, red means stop on the right).

When teaching left handed kids-
-left handed kids need to learn skill in their left hand, such as for writing and coloring precise things.
-if left handed kids cut well with their right hand, let it go.
-preferential seating in the classroom for a child who is left handed would be to have everything in the classroom to their left (example:  child could be seated in the far right row, with everything else to their left.  When teaching, stand to the left of the child, teach on the left side of the room so they are attending to their left).

To learn a new motor task-  left handed kids need to see the “whole picture”, not a piece of the picture or the steps to it.  It is best to have them view the “whole photograph”, and the whole process.

When printing, if left handed kids are forming letters from the bottom up, leave the process alone as long as the end product is okay.

The left handed “hook”:  this is a hand position that provides proprioceptive (sensory) feedback to the child.  If this position is not impeding function, leave it alone.
adaptation:  a 30 degree angle (incline) changes the position of the wrist and reduces “hooking” of the wrist (the wrist can’t flex easily on an incline).  This can be achieved by use of a 3” binder as an incline to write on.

What a sweet boy :)

(This information was obtained from the workshop, “Practical Strategies, Interventions and Treatments for SPD in Children and Adolescents”, as presented by Doreit S. Bialer, MA, OTR/L, 2008.)

Crossing Midline

The human brain is a paired organ; it consists of two halves that look alike.

What is brain lateralization?
Brain lateralization is just the fact that the two halves of the brain are quite different from each other. Both sides have different jobs that they do, and each side is highly specialized in those functions.  For example, you may be aware that the left side of the brain is specialized for language.

Crossing Midline, or "cross lateralization":
We talk a lot in OT about "crossing midline".  Crossing midline simply means that a a child reaches across their body with either hand (such as to use his/her left hand to reach across to the right of their body and vice versa).  Think of it as if there is an imaginary vertical line down the center of their body, and crossing midline would mean moving a hand or foot across that line to the other side of it.

Well, what does this do in terms of brain function?  When a child crosses midline, new connections are made between the right side and the left side, and both sides then are working together, rather than independently of each other.  It integrates the 2 sides of the brain, and organizes the brain for better concentration and problem solving.  This is needed for reading and writing, as a child must cross midline when reading and printing from left to right across a page.  Many self help skills require being able to cross midline, as well as sports activities and other daily skills.

The ability to cross midline develops as bilateral coordination skills develop.  The child learns to coordinate their stronger hand (used for specialized skill) with their helper hand (the hand that they use to assist the dominant hand).  See an earlier post titled "Bilateral Integration/Coordination," dated 6-8-13 for activity ideas for improving bilateral coordination.

This is an example of a child reaching across midline.

You may notice that children who have difficulty reaching across midline often stop in mid-reach and switch hands.  Keep in mind that when a child routinely switches hands, each hand then gets equal practice, and true hand dominance does not develop or may be delayed in developing.  You may also notice that they turn their trunk to reach toward the opposite side instead of reaching across it.  This lack of trunk rotation limits crossing midline, and one way to work on this would be to work on core stability (see earlier post, "Postural Control and Shoulder Stability for Fine Motor Skills," dated 6/3/13 for more info on how to do that).  Also, they may exhibit difficulty visually tracking a moving object from one side to the other or have difficulty following along from left to right when reading.

"Right handed" child completing a coloring task.  Note that the crayons are located on the left side of the paper.

Same child- note that when he changed colors, he picked up the crayon with his left hand, because they were to the left of the paper.  This is not a child who readily crosses midline.  

The following are activities that you can do with your child to encourage crossing midline:

-Complete sorting or reaching and placing activities:  have your child pick up items that are on the right side of them with their right hand, and reach over and place them on their left side (and vice versa). Sort objects into containers in this manner, place pegs in pegboards, etc.

-Complete worksheets or draw on large sheets of paper for which the child has to draw a line from one side of the paper to the other.

-Cone or cup transfer:  Transfer/stack cones or cups with the right hand from right to left and from left to right.  Switch hands.  See top photo above for example.

-Complete cross crawls:  in standing, pick up left knee and touch right hand to it, and then right knee and touch left hand to it, and continue on in this manner, alternating back and forth for a number of repetitions.

-Place a long line of masking tape on the floor.  Have your child walk along the tape line, scissoring their legs (stand with each foot on each side of the tape line, walk along the line by crossing one foot over the other and stepping on the opposite side of the tape line).  Can also do this with their hands while in 4 point along the tape line on the floor, or up a tape line on the wall.

-Check out Brain Gym-  many of the activities that are Brain Gym based are related to crossing midline.  Find out more about this here:  http://www.braingym.org/index
Here is a link for 10 free Brain Gym Activities: http://sspw.dpi.wi.gov/files/sspw/pdf/sascevanshandouts.pdf

2000+! W@@T W@@T!!

Thanks for stopping by, Fabulous OT Friends!!  

Using Things From Around Your House

Therapy “equipment” and therapeutic or developmental toys can be very costly for parents who are already paying for various services for their children.  It can also be expensive for schools/teachers/therapists to purchase them when there are no extra funds available to do so.  However, you might already have some items at home or in the classroom that you can use to facilitate further development of skills without having to spend a lot of money.  The following are some ideas of these types of items and ways that you can use them to work on some skills:

Newspapers or scrap paper:  Have your child use 2 hands together to scrunch up the paper.  This works for improving bilateral skills, hand strength.  Have a “snowball fight” with them, or use them to stuff a craft project.  Have your child use one hand alone to scrunch up the paper to further work on in hand coordination/manipulation.

Clothes pins:  Pinching a clothespin works on improving finger strength, and improving finger isolation/opposition.  It is also a pre scissor skills task, in developing control to pinch/release.  Have your child pinch clothespins and place them on the lip of a box.  Print letters or numbers on them and have them clip them to a card that matches the letter or number to work on matching skills.  Have them pick up small items such as cotton balls or pom poms with the clothespin and transfer them into a container.

Plastic margarine containers:  Cut a slit in the top of the lid of a plastic margarine container.  Have your child push coins through the slit to work on improving finger tip prehension skills and finger strength. Cut various size holes in the lid and have your child push/place various sized items through the matching sized holes.

Tennis balls:  Cut a 2-3” slit in a tennis ball.  Hot glue some craft eyes above the slit to make it look like a face, the slit being the mouth.  Have your child use one hand to squeeze the sides of the ball to open the “mouth” and the other hand to “feed” small items to it.  Items such as pennies, beads, pom poms, cheerios, etc.  This works on bilateral coordination, hand strength, finger tip prehension skills.

Grated parmesan cheese containers:  Push small pom poms through the holes in the top of the container to work on finger tip prehension patterns.  Have your child sort by color to incorporate other skills into the task.

Masking tape/painter’s tape:  Put a tape line on the floor and use it for a balance line.  Have your child walk forward on it, heel to toe, backwards, side step, etc.

Plastic cups:  Stack plastic cups on top of each other (like you would with cones in a therapy setting). Have your child transfer them from left to right and back again, using each hand.  This is a good activity for crossing midline and sequencing.

You can use cups such as the one on the left to stack just as you would the therapeutic cones on the right.

Scarves:  learning how to catch is easy when done with scarves.  Wad a scarf into a ball and “toss” it to your child to catch.  Throw the scarf up into the air and catch it.  This is good for working on beginning throwing and catching, and eye hand coordination skills.

Tongs/tweezers:  Use regular kitchen tongs or tweezers to pick up small items.  This is also a precursor task for scissor skills, and works on hand strength, eye hand coordination and dexterity.

Laundry detergent lids:  Hold the lid or a small plastic cup filled with water upright in the tips of fingers. Turn the lid without spilling by turning it in fingertips to work on in hand manipulation skills.

My Buddy Tag

I have had, and continue to have, several kids on my caseload on the autism spectrum who are "runners," or who randomly wander away from their parents or caregivers.  There have even been a few instances for parents where their child actually got several blocks away before they were found, and even one that entered someone else's house and was sitting on the couch watching TV.  I came across this the other day, and thought I would share it.  The BuddyTag is a child safety device that helps parents track their child when out and about.  There are no monthly fees and BuddyTag does not need charging.  It works with iphones and some Android phones. There are several features, which you can learn more about here:

http://www.mybuddytag.com/

Apple's 12 Days of Gifts Giveaway!

Who doesn't love free stuff?!  Apple is having a promotion (running from Dec. 26th-Jan. 6th) to give away free downloads such as an app, song or book, on each of the 12 days, provided that your devices have been upgraded to iOS 7.  You can read more about the promotion here:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/apple-business/news/?newsid=3493145

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-to-launch-its-12-days-of-gifts-promotion-in-the-us-after-christmas/2013/12/10/bb3fc670-61aa-11e3-94ad-004fefa61ee6_story.html

You can already download the app, however!  The link to do so is in both of the links above, or you can just click here:

Apple 12 Days of Gifts

Remember that "To access these gifts, the Region Format setting on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch needs to match your iTunes Store account."