Crossing the midline: A study of four-year-old children

Midline crossing refers to behavior that results in reaching, stepping, or looking across the body's midline. Several studies have indicated that infants, young children, and individuals with disability make more errors on midline-crossing tasks than on similar tasks placed at the ipsilateral side. Until recently, assessment of midline crossing has used a spatial protocol and has been criticized for not having a temporal component. The purpose of this study was to assess midline crossing by 9 4-yr.-old children within an information processing context. Analysis indicated that contralateral tasks required more processing lime than similar tasks placed ipsilaterally.