Do Children Find Movements Which Cross the Body Midline Difficult?

Abstract

Young children asked to make hand movements which cross the body are likely to respond with a movement confined to the same body side as the hand used. This crosslateral inhibition effect (CIE) features in Kephart's (1971) perceptualmotor theory; there is an extensive, earlier, literature on CIE in adults following cerebral insult; since the twenties, attempts have been made to relate developmental, clinical and neuropathological findings. In the present study 120 children aged from 3 to 8 years faced and copied hand movements of a model in a procedure following Head's (1920) Hand, Eye and Ear Test. CIE was confirmed, but differences between groups did not convincingly relate to age. CIE was greatest not at 3, 4 or 5 but at 6 years; further, 4-year-olds subjects made more preferred hand crosslateral responses than any other group. Analysis of imitation performance showed that older subjects applied a “proximity” strategy to both body part touched and hand use, whereas younger subjects disregarded the latter. It is argued that developmental CIE stems from procedural constraints and an agerelated choice of response strategy, and not learning related to a lateral bifurcation of perceptual-motor organization.