ARE HAND EYE COORDINATION ACTIVITIES REALLY WORTH IT?

If you have ever doubted the use of hand eye coordination activities, this article covers everything you need to know.

Hand Eye coordination is the combined action of the eyes and hands that allows people to perform everyday movements and tasks. This skill can be as simple as watering a plant or as complex as hitting a ball in the air with a bat with tip top precision in sports.

How does this happen?

Hand eye coordination is defined as the use of the eyes to direct muscles towards a task.

Ex: catching a ball, holding a spoon to eat, tying shoe laces

Your vision coordinates and sends signals to your muscles to catch the ball as soon as you see it in the air.

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Importance of Hand-Eye Coordination

Hand eye coordination activities are a great way to encourage your kids to reach new goals, start cool challenges, and scoop up great successes.

These activities are empowering and significant for growing fine-motor skills, gross-motor skills, strengthening vision, and perfecting grasping skills – all while having a pretty fun time.

Here, we will share some of our favourite activities that may help your kids grow, reach, and keep their hand eye coordination in excellent condition.

First, let’s find out how hand-eye coordination develops in early childhood.

Hand Eye Coordination Development by Age

5 months

Grasping for objects
Moving things from one hand to another
Grab objects like feet, bottles or rattles.
See objects at a distance to focus on them.

1 Year

Displaying pincer grasp or picking up an object using the thumb and forefinger.
Picking up smaller objects
Hold a large crayon and make lines or scribble.
Shows hand preference.
Enjoys toys that let you push, pull, twist, turn and screw

2 Years

Picking up and stacking 5 building blocks
Holding a writing utensil
Hold a spoon to eat.

3 Years

Turning pages in a book
Drawing circles.
Can hold scissors and cut along a line.
Zip cloths.

4-5 Years

Demonstrates spatial awareness (Awareness of your surroundings and position relative to them) through the intentional placement of small objects.
Better control of cutlery.
Tie shoe laces.

5-7 Years

Writing individual letters.
Colouring within lines.
Doing up zippers and buttons.
Move and manipulate objects easily.
Skill development eventually leads to sports such as tennis and football.

Incorporating Hand Eye Coordination Activities into the Day

Play and exploration are the best ways to gain better control of our hands and fingers. So it’s best to encourage children to play indoors and outdoors exploring the environment and their own capacity.

You may find yourself feeling empowered by improving your fine motor skills as you reach, scoop, show, start or try new things.

Activities like passing a rope back and forth, picking up small objects, grasping an object for longer periods of time, or dropping free-form items into a big container are all excellent ways to encourage creativity while increasing strength in this area.

Tips for improving hand-eye coordination

Babies

Placing objects of interest within reach.
Shaking a rattle or plastic keys.
Playing with toys that make noise.
Building a tower for the baby to knock down.
Attaching wrist rattles.
Scoop and practice
Sing Incy Wincy spider or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and do the finger actions for them to mimic.

Toddlers

Throwing and catching a ball.
Colouring in activities.
Connect-the-dot activities.
Popping bubbles
Finger painting
Sandpit toys
Working in the garden.
Pillow fight.
Tossing a small bean bag into a hula hoop.
Practise hammering

Pre-schoolers

Cutting and sticking
Skipping rope
Bean bag toss
Drawing
Balloon toss
Pasta thread activity
Rolling a ball to hit bottles

5+ Years

Bouncing a ball on a racquet
Kicking a ball into a goal
Baking
Wall ball
Hopscotch
Tennis
Jigsaw puzzles
Lego
Relay races
Egg and spoon race
Swing ball

Benefits of Hand Eye Coordination Activities

Hand eye coordination activities are a great way to challenge and encourage children to move, reach, and stay creative.

They may also be a great way to start introducing new activities, such as scooping, picking up, and passing activities, to help your child grow and develop. Let’s see what benefits these activities have for your child’s wellbeing.

Ability to perform academic tasks successfully – For writing, drawing, creating , building good hand-eye coordination skills will help profoundly.

Excel in sports – Hand eye coordination skills will help your child be an expert in sports. Quick reaction time is something that’s going to help them reach their full potential in sports. Another great reason is to encourage hand-eye coordination activities at an early age.

Everyday activities – As the kids get older, they need to learn self-help skills which eventually will make them school-ready.

Tying shoelaces, putting on clothes, opening a lunchbox are a few examples of the everyday tasks ahead of them. These simple skills will make it so much easier for them to adapt to the school environment.

Not to mention the self-confidence they feel when they can help themselves.

Socialisation – Many hand eye coordination activities involve playing as a group. Ex: catch, badminton, handball. So it will be a great opportunity to make friends and socialise.

Can be a life-saver at times – Having a quick reaction time can save you from many hazards in real life.

ex: Blocking a stone thrown at you, cushioning a fall with your hands

Improves concentration – The more they use their coordination skills the more they are going to use their brain cells which eventually will help them concentrate better.

As you can see, hand-eye coordination activities can bring long-term benefits while letting the kids have so much fun together.

Furthermore, incorporating hand eye coordination activities into the day doesn’t need to be expensive or difficult. There are plenty of free activities out there, as well as activities that can be made with items you have at home.

Making Hand Eye Coordination Activities Creative

Fun and creative hand eye coordination activities are a great way to get your kids motivated to reach new goals! Not only do these games help increase their grasping skills, perfect their vision, and grow stronger – but they also provide endless amounts of fun.

We’re excited to share our list of age-appropriate activities that could make a big difference in helping your kids control objects better and keep their hand eye coordination at an excellent level.

With enough practice, you can empower your kids to achieve so much physically, mentally and socially.

Points to remember

Every child is different and unique. Some will learn these skills fairly quicker than others and some will need a lot of practice. Provide plenty of encouragement and be patient with them.

Making the activity a bit challenging will keep it interesting but make sure it’s not too difficult as it will make the kids frustrated.

Children with vision impairments, disabilities and other disorders often struggle with developing hand-eye coordination.

Read about play ideas for autistic children.

The initial years are crucial in a child’s development of hand-eye coordination (quite similar to a child’s early growth and development), so it’s never too early to start. Offer them soft toys and rattles early on and let them play and explore.

Conclusion

We hope your child will love these simple activities that improve hand-eye coordination. So why not give it a go today? With practice and effort, you might just perfect your favourite skill and see significant increases in strength over time.