I had an interesting encounter the other morning. While in a very public setting, a young mother with an infant announced to no one in particular that her son was not a crawler. She went on to say that he liked to scoot on his rear end, but he was not developmentally deficient in any way. No one had asked her why he was not crawling, and no one probably would have said anything about his scooting behavior.
Because I am somewhat acquainted with her, I mentioned that she might want to get on his level and crawl with him, as the cross body coordination would help with cross hemisphere brain mapping. You would have thought I had used four-letter words or something. She became very verbally aggressive and said that her husband was a medical student, and there were no developmental deficits.
No one is saying this child has any sort of deficits. Besides being a naturopath, I have a masters degree in education. Somewhere along the way, I learned that students who skipped the crawling stage did have cognitive impairment which would resolve once the student practice crawling for a few weeks. Not having any peer-reviewed studies to hand, I reached out to fellow NDs and asked their opinion. Fortunately, there IS scholarly advice on this matter.
Crossing midline all starts with crawling, which typically develops around age 7-11 months. Crawling is a very important developmental milestone. For many children, especially those with Autism, Dyspraxia (motor in-coordination), or Dyslexia, they may have “skipped” the crawling stage all together. Crawling is important because it works on upper and lower body dissociation, trunk/core rotation, weight-bearing/weight shifting, reciprocal movement patterns, and dynamic movement transitions (ie.: quadruped to side sit, quadruped to ½ kneel, etc.). This is also a precursor for crossing midline which is necessary for the brain to communicate across the corpus collosum, the thick band of nerve fibers which connects the two brain hemispheres. This is required for higher level skills such as reading and writing. In fact, research has shown that children with dyslexia have smaller, less developed, corpus collosums. http://therapyworkstulsa.blogspot.com/2013/07/crossing-midline.html
Furthermore, when a child has difficulty crossing midline, it can affect his/her ability to read. 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. For example, perfecting the skill of putting socks or shoes on requires one hand to cross over to the other side of the body.
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. http://nspt4kids.com/parenting/help-your-child-develop-the-crossing-the-midline-skill/
In my practice, we have a little test that we perform to see if the right side of the brain is communicating with the left side, crossing the corpus callosum Although the corpus callosum is not the only path connecting the hemispheres, it is by far the largest and most important. http://www.emotion.caltech.edu/agcc/info.html When there is a disparity between the scores of our test, t hen we know that there is some sort of energetic blockage.
Again, I am not saying that there are developmental deficits. I am not saying that all children should develop at the same rate for the same skills. What I am saying is that should your child decide to skip the crawling stage, please make sure that you provide enrichment for cross body movement so that the brain will map properly,
Until next time,
Dr. Polly
Interesting read. When I was 11, I visited my sister who lived in Austin. I was friends with one of the girls who lived next door. Her sister was about 7-8, and each evening, the mother would have this daughter get on a platform on either the table or a pool table with a comfy covering. Each family member, would take one of her limbs, and simulate crawling movements, while the girl moved her head from right to left. She had missed that part of her development, and the doctor, teachers, whoever, indicated it would increase her abilities. She was not ‘deficient’ as you mentioned, but they recognized what was missing and incorporated this therapy. This was a long time ago, so this crossing midline awareness is definitely an important step in a child’s development. The fact that the woman in your story was so vehement, is clear indication to me, that there were enough questions in her mind already and she was ready to be offended. Those who protest too much….. Thanks for bringing this to the forefront. Some mom’s think ‘oh he skipped crawling’ is a sign of greater dexterity, abilities etc, and it is definitely not.
Hello,
This is a very good article. I have been doing some research in this area and I found another site who may have plagiarized you? It seems that their article came after yours unless maybe you are in charge of that website? It is in a video of theirs at this link: https://www.mykinetickid.com/parenting/when-crossing-the-midline-doesnt-happentherapy-what-is-autism-yoga
“Furthermore, when a child has difficulty crossing midline, it can affect his/her ability to read. 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.”
Just thought you may like to know! 🙂
Interesting… You know what they say, “Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Hello, Thank you for the great information. I have a 7-year-old son with diagnosed ADHD, speech and language delays, and suspected ASD. He just qualified for OT and PT services through the public school system after many attempts by myself to get the help I believe he required. He was premature and did skip the crawling phase. Both the OT and the PT have identified him as having difficulty crossing midline with some tasks, but I’m not seeing this at home when I perform the recommended tests and skill checks.
In regards to your comments about the mother’s response after your verbal exchange. As an educator, I am sure you have experienced it isn’t so much about what you say, but rather how you say it. Based on the provided information and your observations, one can speculate this mother is already feeling isolated and perhaps helpless, raising what we can assume is a neurologically atypical child in a highly critical world that attempts to expect everyone to meet neurotypical standards and conformity. Without knowing you, your background, or your intentions, starting out the dialogue with “you should” automatically puts her on the defense. I recommend in the future you introduce yourself and your background, make a connection with the other person by mirroring their sentiments and concerns (show empathy) and then ask permission to give advice. Your well-meaning advice would likely be much better perceived by the other party.
Thank you for your comments. I re-read my post three times. I do not see where I started the conversation with “you should.” As I mentioned, I was acquainted with this mother, and especially with mother/child issues, I assure you I tread carefully.
34 year old female here who was diagnosed with autism at age 29. I am strongly right-handed, crawled normally, and write/read well — I graduated cum laude with a degree in English, and have a natural talent for spelling (the opposite of dyslexia) — but I still nonetheless have significant problems crossing the midline. In my current job as a direct support professional, I had to get special exemption for some of the physical parts of Mandt training because I couldn’t pass the coordination parts of that training which required midline crossing. I spoke with the instructor who explained my problem in this area, and it turns out other coordination issues I’ve struggled with in my life — tying shoes (I still tie with two bows), cooking, etc. — also relate to problems with midline crossing. I have a very stiff core and tend to move only one limb at a time. I did develop enough coordination to be a decent basketball player, but a number of other visual/motor issues have turned up in my life. It seems the usual explanations for these deficits don’t apply in my case because, as mentioned, I’m strongly right handed, had no issues crawling, etc. Obviously more concrete research is needed before we draw conclusions and make correlations, because not everything is adding up here in my case.
Bless your heart! Obviously there is something deeper going on here. Best wishes on getting it resolved!
I’m certain my son had this issue – he never crawled, but went right to walking. Had difficulty reading at first and appeared ambidextrous but yet had difficulty with sports – though my husband and I were college athletes. He is 15 now. Though he now plays sports, it’s evident there is still a hold back. Reading these posts it’s similar to that described – stuff, using one hand sometimes, especially on a new activity. I’m wondering is there specific coordination training to train the brain to overcome this in general or just skill specific? Is there a way to obtain a diagnosis at this stage or a particular type of specialty to see? Academically we have overcome through hard work. Athletically he has achieved a lot, through lots of training. But, it would be great to get him additional help if it could help him even more.
I am not sure how you would get a diagnosis at this age. However, we have seen great improvement when teens just get on the floor and crawl. It does not have to be for hours, but for several minutes each day. If they will do any movement that will encourage cross body coordination, improvement will be seen. Not only physically, but academically too. Thank you for reaching out!