Bilateral Coordination is when both sides of the body work together in a smooth and coordinated way. In this activity I am encouraging Little M to use both her hands to do the same thing together (symmetrical movement) as well as coordinating two different movements at the same time such as cutting with scissors (assymetrical movement). Encouraging bilateral movement in your child will ensure that he is comfortable using both sides of his body to complete tasks. Often we notice that the non-dominant hand gets neglected yet it is so important in supporting the dominant hand to complete tasks.
For the bilateral bus we started off by mixing paint. Little M had to hold the paint tube and squeeze with both hands into a container. She then mixed the red and white paint to make pink using the paint brush. She had to hold onto the container with her non dominant hand. At this stage she is still swapping when one or other hand becomes tired.
She painted the fruit box with one hand supporting the box and the other painting the box.
To make the wheels we took a lid of a jar and Little M traced the shape of the bottle top on the cardboard. Here she concentrated really hard to hold down the bottle top while her left hand traced around the shape. She then cut out the circles. She needed my help to position the scissor. Scissor cutting is a more complex bilateral task because the dominant hand has to get used to holding the scissor, opening and closing the scissor in a reciprocal movement as well as trying to stay on the line.
I bought a huge bottle of glue recently because we get through glue so quickly. I was going to transfer the glue into smaller containers but decided to use the big bottle with Little M. She held the big bottle up, controlled the nozzle and squeezed on the right spot. Great job!
She stuck the wheels on and secured it with clothes pegs. Again she needed to use one hand for support and the other for doing.
We decorated it with stickers and ‘fairy dust’ and voila! A bus for her princess. I love that there is developmental opportunity in every fun activity…
