What is bilateral integration?

That is the ability of both sides of the body to work together to perform a task.

Signs/symptoms of a child struggling with bilateral integration

• Appearing to be uncoordinated when doing tasks
• Difficulty in performing gross motor tasks
• Preferring not to cross the imaginary midline of the body
• Not choosing a dominant hand to write/draw/colour (after age 5)
• Swapping hands when doing tasks

Activities to improve bilateral integration

Any task where arms and legs of both sides of the body need to work together to perform a task e.g.:

• Skipping
• Galloping
• Skipping rope tasks
• Hop-scotch
• Bear-walk (left arm and left hand walking forward simultaneously)
• Lion-walk (left arm and right hand walking forward simultaneously)
• Jumping-jacks
• Snow-angel (moving arms and legs up-and-down while lying on the ground)
• Jumping forward with feet together
• Lying on back and kicking ball with feet together
• Sitting on chair and catching ball with feet together (roll it to the child)
• Clap bubbles (parents blows it towards the child)
• Catch a flat piece of paper using hands
• Lie on back, take ball placed above the head, using both feet
• Bounce a ball using both hands (big to smaller ball)
• Tape a line on the floor using masking tape:  jump zig-zag over the line, jump over the line (forward and backward)
• Rolling and pressing clay using both hands
• Cutting with scissors using both hands (start with pictures with little detail to pictures with a lot of detail
• Play twister
• ‘Tolletjiebrei’
• Kicking like a donkey/ Jumping like a frog
• Throw ball against a wall and catch it