How the Body Midlines Affect the Learning of Mathematics 2008, Lori MacKinder, M.A.
3rd,
4th and 5th grade math is wonderful! All that fantastic work in long division,
fractions, decimals and measurement is so fun!
… or is it? Some children enjoy the challenges of adding and subtracting
fractions. Others shut down at the mere
mention of the word fractions. Same
thing happens with long division: the pencil gets picked up and work started by
some or the groaning begins with others.
Why is this so? Why are these
the years that teachers first begin to hear, “I hate math” from some students?
Children
who struggle with learning in school are trying to tell us something about
themselves. Often it is not so simple
as a dislike of a subject matter itself.
The “I hate math” words may really a call for assistance from something
underlying the topic at hand. There is
often an underlying reason that students struggle with a particular
subject. When we use the students
struggle as objective information, we, as educators and parents, can often
times find deeper issues that cause the struggle and therefore support the
student through the problem and into healing or overcoming by addressing this
underlying issue. Not only can we be
helpful parents and teachers, but we can be curious detectives as well!
Often
times, a contributing factor to the malady around the math topics mentioned
above is the physical body of a child and how it has developed. As we grow from infancy to childhood, our
bodies go through a number of very important developmental stages. Each stage is built upon the previous stage.
Some of the most important physical growth milestones or developmental stages
happen between birth and school age.
With our lives and society the way that it is today, with all the rush,
disharmony, inconsistencies, changes and trauma, it is sometimes challenging
for the child of today to unfold developmentally in a timely and natural
way. Much can get in the way of the
natural development of a child due to hectic or busied life disruptions.
One of
these important milestones of development is the integration of Bodily
Midlines. This integration of our
Bodily Midlines in early childhood is a key component to a child’s whole
development. Often times, when the bodily midlines are not integrated early on
(by the age of 7), learning is hampered, especially in the subject of
mathematics, and behavioral or attentive problems begin to emerge. Let’s look
closer at the midlines now.
 Each of our bodies is divided into sections with imaginary lines or
planes, vertical or horizontal – drawn through an upright body. In the world of education, these are
commonly referred to as “Midlines”.
Medical professionals often refer to these as “Anatomical Planes” or
“Body Planes”. Depending on your
background, you may have different vocabulary to refer to what I am going to
refer to as “Midlines”. Each of us has three main midlines: Right-Left Midline,
Horizontal Midline, and the Front-Back Midline.
The Right-Left Midline (or Sagittal plane):
The Right – Left Midline is an imaginary line or plane that runs
vertically down through the center of the body, dividing it into two perfect
mirrors of each other: the right side of the body and the left side of the
body. Students whose right-left midline
is not fully integrated may avoid a crossing over of this centerline of the
body. They are easy to spot in the
classroom by watching the way in which they move, sit, work and interact. For
example, where the majority of the children in the class have two feet planted
on the floor when sitting at their desk and face toward the front of the
classroom or chalkboard (facing forward), the child who has a Right-Left
Midline that is not fully integrated may point his body toward the side of the
classroom and only turn their head towards the front or chalkboard (sitting
sideways). This side sitting allows the
child to work on only one side of the body, avoiding the crossing over of the
midline when writing or reading. Some
more examples: Where most students keep their work and writing paper at the
center of their body on the desk and write on it horizontally from left to
right, students with a right-left midline that is not fully integrated may push
their work or writing to one side or turn their paper in the vertical so that
they right from the bottom to the top. When asked to erase the chalkboard,
these students may clean the parts of the board that are on their right side
with their right hand and then change hands for the part of the board that is
on their left side avoiding any crossing over of their center with one
hand. Students with this challenge may
also sit with part of their body hanging off their chair. This is another method of keeping their work
to only one side of their body instead of at the center. . All of the strategies mentioned above
avoid crossing the middle part of the body.
In body geography exercises, these students may also find it difficult
to determine, or be slow with deciding, which is their right hand or left hand,
right foot or left foot. It is
important to mention that students with this integration issue are not aware of
the strategy they employ to avoid the crossing over. So to say to a student to “sit straight” in their chair would not
land with understanding, fore they feel that they are in fact sitting
straight. Better would be to gently
guide the child’s body into a straight sitting position so that they may
experience the difference in their body.
The strategies of sitting sideways, partly off the chair or turning the
paper in the vertical positions are all simply
coping mechanisms to aid them in still fulfilling the work requirements
while having this area of underdevelopment.
A fully integrated midline in a child would look like ease in crossing
over from one side of the body to the other.
For example, the right hand naturally works on both the right and left
side of the body and crosses over side-to-side with ease or the left hand
easily works of the both the right and left side of the body for
left-handers. When seated straight in a
chair, two feet planted on the floor with a piece of paper before the student
at his or her center, the student could naturally and with ease write from left
to right and cross over the midline. As
a side note, when we type properly, on the other hand, we avoid the midline
keeping the right hand on the right side of the body and the left hand to the
left side. Therefore, allowing a
student to type instead of write when the writing is challenging is only
providing an accommodation and not actual healing to the student.
Research shows that we think with our body (muscle movements) before we
think with our brain or thoughts. (I Move...Therefore
I Am, By: Jay A. Seitz,
Psychology Today Magazine, Mar/Apr 93, Article ID: 1720) This is an important concept to contemplate
in the realm of education. If a student
has issues learning or thinking, more teaching and tutoring or lecturing may
not be the key to success, but more movement of a specific type may
be! For students with the right-left
midline not integrated, they may have difficulties with any topic or subject
that requires moving from the right to the left or any crossing over of a
centerline. For example, in a
mathematical equation, the center place is the equal sign. Both sides are balanced when the equation is
correct and the balancing point is the equation sign:
The equal sign in the equation above is the center point and is
representative of the right-left midline in our body, our body’s center. One side equals the other side with a
separation in between. For students
that are challenged in this midline, they might not be able to move fluidly
from one side of the equation to the other just as they cannot move fluidly
from one side of their body to the other.
Students with a challenge in this area will not easily be able to make a
connection between a problem and it’s solution in a mathematical equation. A list is presented below to aid in the
dissection of other challenges.
Right-Left Midline… What to look for:
·
Avoidance crossing over the center of the body
·
Sits sideways in the chair
·
Keeps the desk work to one side of the body
·
Hangs off one side of the chair
·
Turns a horizontal piece of paper vertically with
working
·
Challenges in determining right from left side
Math topics of possible
challenge:
·
Equations
·
Graphing across a horizontal axis
·
Distribution
·
Long Division
·
Symmetry
·
Geometry
·
Modeling
·
Word Problems
·
Trigonometric Identities
Helps and Supports:
·
Anything that encourages the crossing over of the
center midlines such as: cleaning the chalkboard, bean bag tossing
·
exercises, sweeping, raking, or shoveling.
·
Games and activities from modalities such as The Extra
Lesson or Brain Gym designed for crossing over the midline
·
such as cross-crawls, hook-ups, and
·
In the classroom, form drawing, playing the Tic-Tac-Toe
game, and large motor movements that cross over can be helpful.
The Horizontal Midline (Axial plane):
 The horizontal midline passes through
the body in a line or plane, parallel to the ground, dividing the body into
upper and lower portions at the waist.
When this midline is not
fully integrated, the upper portion of the body stays somewhat disconnected
from the lower half of the body and problem solving in the vertical can be
compromised. With the general decrease
in movement in children’s lives today, this midline often benefits from some
healthy intervention. In previous
generations tree climbing, hanging from monkey bars, shell or rock collecting
and playing bare foot in nature naturally integrated this midline. Many children today cannot reach or touch
their toes without squatting. A correct forward bend that is helpful for
integrating the Horizontal Midline is show to the below.
Wiggling vigorously or separating toes using
foot muscles is often weak as well. The boxer style of jumping rope is
extremely challenging to children with a compromised horizontal midline
also. In the subject of math, fractions
are the topic that most closely represents this midline. The numerator
represents the upper half of the physical body. The fraction bar represents the horizontal midline at the waist
and the denominator represents the lower half of the body. When working with students that have
difficulties with fractions, the horizontal midline is the first place the
detective work can begin in looking for an underlying reason why the challenge
is present in the student.
A chart is presented below with other possible challenges to
watch for and a few helps or supports that can be offered.
Horizontal Midline… What to
look for:
·
Avoidance bending over the waist.
·
Daily tight belts at waist.
·
Shoes untied or falling off.
·
Lifts leg and foot up to reach foot or shoe.
·
Draws human figures without feet.
·
May work on only the top half of a page or only the
bottom half of a page.
·
Unable to jump rope in the boxer style of jumping where
one jump happens with one turn of the rope.
·
Children who wear bare midriff shirts or baggy pants
that hang below the waist.
Topics of possible
challenge:
·
Fractions
·
Negative numbers on a vertical number line
·
Exponents
·
Long Division
·
Geometry
·
Trigonometry
·
Graphing in Quadrants III and IV
·
Word Problems
Helps and Supports:
·
Anything that encourages the crossing over or bending
over the waist: toe touches, leg stretches, picking up floor items.
·
Crawling and creeping activities with bare feet..
·
Games and activities from modalities such as The Extra
Lesson or Brain Gym designed for crossing over the horizontal such as
cross-crawls, hook-ups, ball twirling, bean bag activities, and body geography
games.
·
In the classroom, form drawing using the feet to draw
with and body geography games that involve bending at the waist, playing the
Tic-Tac-Toe game, etc
·
At home, abundant free play in nature with bare feet
and natural objects to as toys (rock, sticks, trees, boulders, streams, shells,
grass, etc.)
The Front-Back Midline
(Coronal Plane):
The
Front-Back midline is also an imaginary vertical line or plane, but this one
passes through the body dividing it into front and back portions. This is perhaps the least talked about
midline. It is the midline that is
related to the integration between the front of the body and the back of the
body. The integration for this midline,
like the other midlines, happens through movement or motion. The front is the forward motion or moving
into the future. The back is the backward motion, which takes us into our past. In greater detail, forward motion includes:
moving into the future, foreseeing, planning, time management, etc. Backward motion includes: memory, recall,
checking, reflecting, etc. Many times
when a student demonstrates challenges with this midline it can be traced to a
specific retained reflex called Spinal Galant (or sometimes spelled
Gallant). Kathy Brown, M.Ed., from the
Center Edge in her 2001 article Retained Reflexes in Children and Adults and
Their Effects on Learning, Behavior and Performance wrote about the primary
reflexes and their importance in the learning environment which is important to
add here as a foundation of understanding of a reflex generally:
“Many people who have cared for an infant
are familiar with childhood reflexes: Put your finger in the infant's hand and
her fingers grip, with thumb not involved (Palmar Reflex). The infant's head
turns to one side and both arms turn to that side (Asymmetric Tonic Neck
Reflex). Stroke the infant's low back on one side and her side muscles
instantly contract (Spinal Galant Reflex). Surprised by a sound, the infant
instantly spreads his hands wide, head back, eyes wide open, breathing in (Moro
Reflex). Doctors often gauge the development of the child by the orderly
progression of these reflexes. Under optimal
circumstances all reflexes "initiate" during the appropriate stage of
the child's development, "integrate" themselves as a firmly
functioning reflex, and then "inhibit" or fall away when it's time to
move on to the next developmental stage. It is vital that this occurs. If various reflexes fail to initiate,
integrate and inhibit, the system is locked into a developmental holding
pattern that prevents natural maturation of neural systems, inevitably leading
to mild to severe learning and performance challenges. ‘Stuck’ Reflexes Lead to Learning
Challenges.”
The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology
(http://www.inpp.org.uk/reflexes/spinal_galant_reflexes.php) writes online
about the Spinal Galant Reflex in this way, “This reflex is present at birth
and should be inhibited between three and nine months of post-natal life. If it
persists, it can affect: ability to sit still, attention, coordination,
posture, sometimes associated with bedwetting, and can contribute to the
development of scoliosis (curvature) of the spine.” Generally speaking, there is sensitivity in the backspace of the
student if this reflex is still present during the school years. It is easy to test for in a child using the
stroke the low back on one side and see if the side muscles instantly contract.
Samuel A. Berne writes in his book, Without Ritalin, “This reflex (Spinal Galant) is always
competing with the child’s attention and short-term memory because the child is
distracted by the need to be in constant motion.” (Without Ritalin: A Natural Approach to ADD By Samuel A.
Berne Published by McGraw-Hill Professional, 2001, page 28) The children with
retained Spinal Galant Reflex often suffer from concentration and problems with
memory especially short-term memory.
This is all happening in the child’s backspace. When the backspace has such significant
issues, it is very challenging for a student to have movement happen behind
them, walk backwards or even sit with their back up against a chair. Such disharmony in the backwards motion also
translates into our thinking in the form of memory. Where backward physical motion happens with the body, memory is
the backwards motion of the mind.
With the subject of mathematics, this midline is best represented with
the action of solving an equation and then performing error checking. This solve-and-check sequence is a forward
and backward motion. Students who often
rush through their work without checking may have a front-back midline issue. These students may lack the focus and
concentration to take the time to reassess a math problem once it has been
completed.
A list is presented below with other possible challenges to watch for
and a few helps or supports that can be offered.
Front- Back Midline… What to look for:
·
Sensitive to touch on the back.
·
Poor memory or poor recall.
·
Possible retained reflex: Spinal Galant
·
Sits sideways in the chair or avoids sitting with their
back against the chair.
·
Sits balled up in the chair with knees up at chest,
shins pushing against the desk and the back pressed firm against the back of
the chair.
·
Feels uncomfortable with people or movement behind
them.
·
Is often the student turned around in chair, chatting
with the neighbors behind.
·
May wear very baggy clothing or very tight
clothing. Sometimes the fabric or shirt
tag can be bothersome. May prefer socks
worn inside out.
Topics of possible
challenge:
·
Solve and Check Equations
·
Modeling
·
Long Division
·
Geometry
·
Word Problems
·
Any topic that requires the creation of mental images.
·
Any topic that requires going over a problem a second
or third time.
·
All review or recall.
·
Working at home independently even when the learning
during the day with the teacher was successful.
Helps and Supports:
·
Anything that encourages forward and backward
movements: walking, crawling, jump rope, skipping, etc.
·
Memory or recall games of items or lists recited
forwards and then backwards.
·
Games and activities from modalities such as The Extra
Lesson or Brain Gym designed for crossing over the midline such as
cross-crawls, copper rod or beanbag games.
·
In the classroom, clay modeling, sand play and large
motor movements that move forward and backwards.
·
Movement activities such as the “caterpillar” performed on the floor with back down or the
“Burrito Wrap” tightly wrapped or “Stretching Cat” from the Zoo Activities.
·
Back drawing games such as, “X Marks the Spot”.
·
Tracing large
imaginary laying down figure 8s in the air from front to back with the
center of the 8 at the body’s side using the hands or pointer fingers.
·
The “Jumping – Clapping” sequence normally associated
with the Person/House/Tree drawing of the Extra Lesson by Audrey
McAllen.
When a student
has challenges with all three midlines, flexible thinking and moving can be
greatly hampered. Take for example the work
of long division. In a long division
problem, a student must work right and left, up and down and backward and
forward. When we as parents and
teachers notice a student struggling with a particular topic, it is wise to
look deeper into the meaning behind the issue.
Simply offering more tutoring on the challenging topic may only increase
the student’s internal contraction and emotional frustration about topic making
in even more difficult to overcome the issue.
This is how students decide that they hate math before they truly delve
deep enough into the topic to find its tresures.
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