The Development of Manual Midline Crossing in 2- to 6-Year-Old Children

Abstract

The present study analyzed the development of manual midline crossing in a sample of one hundred sixty 2- to 6-year-old children and considered test construction factors that could affect the test design. The test construction factors addressed were (a) the effect of biasing the hand used for object manipulation and (b) the effect of distance from midline required for task completion on the frequency of manual midline crossing. A pegboard task was used to measure manual midline crossing. The results identified a developmental age trend in crossing the body midline in 2- to 6-year-old children. Biasing the hand used for object manipulation significantly increased the probability of eliciting manual midline crossing. A combination of linear and quadratic trends was found when the effect of distance from midline on the frequency of contralateral responses produced during testing was analyzed.

Influence of object spatial location and task complexity on children's use of their preferred hand depending on their handedness consistency

“…As their hand preference becomes more established, infants increasingly often grasp an object with their preferred hand even when this object is presented in the contralateral space (Fagard, 1998). A similar age-related tendency has been reported with children who are likely to use their preferred hand more in the contralateral space as they grow up (Gabbard, Rabb, & Gentry, 2001;Hill & Bishop, 1998;Stilwell, 1987). It is unlikely that skill alone accounts for this age difference: When thrown a ball from different directions scaled from the extreme right to the extreme left, 4-year-old children use their preferred right hand up to a well-defined position located to the left of the midline.…”

Does your body count? Embodied influences on the preferred counting direction of preschoolers

“…This clearly indicates that a hand choice was modulated by object proximity and complexity of movement, and not generally by the location of the stimulus relative to body midline. Other studies also confirm that children are more likely to use contralateral strategies when contralateral objects are placed close to their body midline so that they do not have to move their arm very far to the right of left (Atwood & Cermak, 1986;Carlier et al, 2006;Stilwell, 1987).…”

Genetic effects on infant handedness under spatial constraint conditions

“…We found that infants preferred to use their right hand in grasping movements in the order of right, middle and left locations, indicating that hand selection in infants is modulated in part by spatial location. The effects of spatial location on hand selection have been previously reported in children aged over 2 years (Bishop, 2005;Bryden & Roy, 2006;Carlier et al, 2006;Gabbard & Helbig, 2004;Leconte & Fagard, 2006;Stilwell, 1987) and in infants in their first year of life (Marschik et al, 2008;Sacco et al, 2006). Although hand selection appears to be modulated by the spatial location at all developmental stages, the pattern of hand selection observed for infants aged 18 months was found to be relatively similar to that exhibited by older children, who tended to select their dominant hand to reach and grasp targets at various locations (Bryden & Roy, 2006;Carlier et al, 2006).…”

“…The effects of spatial constraint can be tested in an experimental setting in which the location of a target for reaching and grasping movements are manipulated, thus encouraging hand selection during performance of a task (Bishop, 2005;Carlier, Doyen, & Lamard, 2006;Gabbard & Helbig, 2004;Leconte & Fagard, 2006;Marschik et al, 2008;Sacco, Moutard, & Fagard, 2006;Stilwell, 1987). In these settings, right-handed people tend to use their right hand to reach towards a target located on their right side, and often select their left hand to reach towards a left-side target (Gabbard & Helbig, 2004).…”