Lazy 8's

Lazy 8's

Remember the recent Double Doodles blog post from 4-16-14?  In that post, I mentioned that Double Doodles and Lazy 8's are a couple of Brain Gym based activities that I like to use with my students.  As a re cap, I mentioned that these 2 activities promote bilateral coordination.  Kids who have difficulty with bilateral coordination have difficulty using 2 hands or the 2 sides of their bodies together. You might also notice that they have trouble crossing midline (the imaginary line running down the center of your body), or that they do not have an established hand dominance (they switch hands frequently). These activities encourage the integration of the left and the right sides of the brain, and the integration of coordination between the 2 sides of the body.  These activities are beneficial for all students, regular ed and special ed, learning issues or not.  I have already discussed Double Doodles in that last post...here are a couple more examples of some of my students' work regarding that activity:

Here is an example of a student's double doodle activity.  Fairly good symmetry on this one.

Some difficulty with midline on this Double Doodle task.

The end result of the above child's work. Note the difficulty with the left side of midline.

Lazy 8's is a 1 and then 2 handed drawing activity that involves tracing a horizontal 8 (or infinity sign) repeatedly.  The activity is most often done on a vertical plane (chalk board/white board or on a large piece of paper on the wall), but can be done on a table top as well.

• Draw a line down the center of the paper, or draw a vertical line on the board. Have the child stand or sit directly in front of that line so that it correlates to the middle of their body.
• Draw a large horizontal eight across the vertical line on the paper or board.
• Have the child trace the horizontal 8 repeatedly along the curves with his/her finger or with a marker or piece of chalk. 
• Have the child complete the tracing activity several times with each hand and then several more times holding the marker with both hands together.

The upper extremity arm movements encourage fluidity of movement that promotes eye-hand coordination and encourages visual tracking, as well as providing a multi-sensory experience.  The motion also incorporates the same movements needed to form letters of the alphabet.