title: Midline crossing: developmental trend from 3 to 10 years of age in a preferential card-reaching task.
abstract: We assessed 110 left-handed and 322 right-handed children aged from 3 to 10 years, using Bishop's card-reaching task. Manual body midline crossings were observed. A regular developmental trend was observed from 3 to 10 years: older children crossed the body midline more frequently when reaching for cards than did younger children. The factor age explained 4.9% of the variance. Significant differences appeared between 3-4 years old children and 8-10 years old children. The effect of the spatial position of the cards was also significant: the contralateral hand was used less often to reach cards at the most extreme positions. These findings in this task demonstrate that the development of the degree of handedness follows a long developmental trend.
authors.affiliation: Centre of Research PsyCLE, EA3273, University of Provence, Aix en Provence, France. michele.carlier@up.univ-aix.fr
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.forename: A-L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Doyen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lamard
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013028:Space Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires