TIPS FOR GROWING: Edition 3 - Bilateral Coordination

07.18.2022

This edition of "Tips For Growing" will focus on the types of bilateral coordination, foundations of bilateral coordination, and highlight our NEW Bilateral Coordination Exercise resources!

Bilateral Coordination

Bilateral Coordination refers to a child’s ability to control both sides of their body in an organized manner. Optimal bilateral coordination requires communication or integration between both sides of the brain. The development of ideal fine motor, gross motor, and adaptive daily living skills requires intact bilateral coordination.

Types of Bilateral Coordination

There are three types of bilateral coordination. The first is known as symmetrical coordination. This involves the use of both sides of the body (upper and lower limbs), at the same time, for the same action. Examples of this include banging blocks together, performing jumping jacks, and using a rolling pin. The second is known as asymmetrical coordination. This involves the use of either the upper or lower limbs performing the same action at alternate times. Examples of this include marching or walking. Finally, there is also dominant/non-dominant coordination. This involves the use of different sides of the body for dissimilar movements. Examples include tying shoes and writing with one hand while stabilizing paper with the other hand.

Foundations of Bilateral Coordination

One important foundation of intact bilateral coordination includes the child’s ability to spontaneously cross the imaginary midline of their body. This means the child can move one arm, leg, or eye into the space of the opposite arm, leg, or eye while performing functional motor tasks. This can be noted when a child crosses their legs while sitting, uses one hand to scratch the opposite shoulder, or reads across the page in a left to right manner.

As children age the establishment of a dominant hand indicates that the brain is maturing, and lateralization is being established. Without an established hand dominance, two handed tasks are often performed inefficiently, slowly, and with poor precision.

Another important foundation for intact bilateral coordination includes body awareness. This is the internal awareness of where one’s body is in space without being dependent upon vision. In other words, a child can move in a specified manner without looking at their limbs to ensure precision. Feedback from the sensors in the muscles and joints help children coordinate how to initiate, sustain, and terminate the movement with proper timing and speed. Examples of body awareness includes knowing how far to step up when using stairs, tying shoes without looking at your hands/laces, placing your arm into your jacket sleeve without looking, and typing on a keyboard.

As can be seen, bilateral coordination is essential to the execution of daily living tasks and complex motor skills. Here are examples of common skills and milestones that require bilateral coordination.

Babies & Toddlers

Banging blocks together (one in each hand)
Clapping
Transitioning between belly and sitting
Creeping
Walking
Climbing Stairs
Holding & drinking from a bottle or cup

Early Childhood

Stringing beads
Buttoning
Snipping with scissors
Putting on socks & shoes
Catching & throwing
Peeling & adhering stickers
Opening jars

Childhood

Tying shoes
Zipping
Using scissors
Using a hole punch & ruler
Cutting & spreading with a knife
Reading left to right across the page
Playing musical instruments
Skipping
Riding a bike
Running
Skating
Swimming
Performing dance routines
Gymnastics

Therapists can facilitate bilateral coordination by engaging children in specific movements and exercises. To address this need, Tools To Grow is pleased to present our new resource, Bilateral Coordination Exercises.

The benefit of using these resources includes the following:

Provides detailed images to help the therapist when demonstrating to child.
Provides text that also helps the therapist when explaining the technique to the child.
Can be used for carry-over between therapy sessions or to provide to families for instruction.

There are a total of 31 cards (2 per page) and 31 posters (1 per page) that provide child friendly image(s) that depicts an exercise that the child is to imitate.

Visuals in both color and black/white are included for each bilateral coordination exercise.

Each bilateral coordination exercise card/poster includes written instructions to further explain how to perform the exercise.

Find them ONLY in our shop here!