‘LAZY 8’ VISUAL MOTOR ACTIVITY FOR READING AND WRITING

Isn’t it great when learning becomes a game? The Lazy 8 is one of 26 Brain Gym exercises® and it’s a brilliant activity for building your child’s visual-motor skills, helping them cross the midline for reading and writing.

What’s the ‘midline’? Think of the eyes crossing from one side of the body to the other; at some point they need to cross the midline of the body (at the bridge of the nose) to get to the other side. When that happens effortlessly, we can read with ease. When the hemispheres of the brain are not well integrated (I think of this as as the right and left side of the brain talking to each other), the eyes can skip at the midline and this causes complications with reading. This can result in trouble keeping your place, poor comprehension skills, symptoms of dyslexia.

In order to roll the marbles around the track on the Lazy 8 board, children need to move their hands and eyes (up, down, left and right) plus cross the midline with their eyes. This activates both hemispheres of the brain, develops visual and motor co-ordination, visual tracking, concentration and relaxed learning. It can also be beneficial for those with dyslexia, dyspraxia and dysgraphia.

Based in Glasgow, Little School of Yoga works with children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to promote physical and mental wellbeing.