The Importance Of Hand-Eye Coordination In Early Childhood Development

From the moment they first reach their tiny fingers out towards you, your baby is making connections between what they see and how they move. Your familiar face, their favourite teddy or a dangling, high-contrast toy will be among the first things that they reach for. Hand-Eye Coordination is a critical skill – the ability to coordinate physical movement based on visual cues. You’ll see your child start to develop their hand-eye coordination from the moment they are born, and like other fundamental development skills, there are lots of way you can support and encourage them to master it.

Hand-eye coordination is the basis for lots of every day functions and activities, from reading and writing to tying shoelaces, playing sports, cooking…the list is endless. For your little one, developing their hand-eye coordination means they will be able to play more independently, picking up objects, moving and replacing, sorting and stacking, turning pages and pointing to pictures. The development of hand-eye coordination improves their spatial awareness, short-term memory and problem-solving skills as well as helping them to understand their place and impact in the world.

Developing Hand-Eye Coordination

Once they are able to move more independently , you’ll begin to see them making deeper connections between what they see and what they want to explore with their hands. Touch is an important sense to an infant, and one of the only senses they possess even before they are born. As babies, they use their hands, feet and mouth to find out what things feel like before their eye sight is fully developed.

• Hand-eye coordination is fundamental for the development of fine motor skills. Activities such as writing, drawing, buttoning, and using utensils rely heavily on the ability to synchronise hand movements with visual cues.
• It enhances cognitive skills. Hand-eye coordination requires the brain to process visual information and translate it into coordinated physical movements. This process improves spatial awareness, memory, and problem-solving skills. For example, when your little one catches a ball, they must estimate its speed and trajectory, skills that are transferable to academic pursuits like mathematics and science.
• Hand-eye coordination encourages children to engage in physical activities, such as sports, which improve their overall fitness, agility, and strength. Participation in physical activities also promotes healthy lifestyle habits.
• Many activities that require hand-eye coordination, such as team sports or collaborative play, also involve social interaction. Through these interactions, children learn important social skills such as teamwork, communication, and empathy. These skills are vital for building and maintaining relationships throughout life.
• Hand-eye coordination is closely tied to reading and writing skills. As children learn to track moving objects with their eyes, they also develop the ability to track printed words across a page, which is crucial for reading fluency and comprehension. Writing also requires the coordination of visual focus with fine motor control.

How Can You Support Your Childs Development Of This Vital Skill?

Encourage Movement and Reaching

Toys that dangle will encourage your baby to reach for them when they are laying on their back, although their depth perception isn’t fully developed, contrasting colours and interesting shapes will keep your baby interested and encourage them to reach out for the prize!

Sorting and Stacking

As they get older and can play with your support, toys that focus on sorting and stacking give your little one a chance to test out their hand-eye coordination and give a sense of achievement when the task is completed

Passing, Catching and Throwing

As soon as they are able to grasp objects, encourage passing back and forth and giving lots of praise when they follow the pattern and pass something back. As they grow, you can begin showing them how to catch and throw. Find balls or soft sacks with interesting textures and shapes to change things up.

Co-ordinate Outdoor Fun

The great outdoors gives plenty of scope for your childs developmental growth. Whether you are learning to count with our Counting with Nature guide, or playing outdoor games such as ring toss, hopscotch, football, hide and seek, you’ll be helping your child to further develop their hand-eye-coordination, physical strength, confidence and competitiveness.

Make Music

Musical instruments make wonderful toys and encourage hand-eye coordination and other essential development skills like memory, confidence and creativity.  Banging drums, a xylophone or buttons on an exciting musical toy give an instant noisy reward, helping them practise coordinating their movements to make music with you!

Around The House

Taking part in daily routines and household activities is the ideal way for children to develop their sense of self along with their coordination. Getting dressed, tying shoelaces, cleaning teeth and tidying up all require elements of hand-eye coordination. In the kitchen, combining ingredients, rolling pastry, pouring and mixing all support the growth of your child’s fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as well as their love of food! The kitchen is a great place for developing other skills too – read our blog, Cooking and Counting In The Kitchen.

As they grow…

Supporting your child’s natural development of their hand-eye coordination will help your child to thrive, especially when they start school. As they grow, keep up the focus on encouraging hand-eye coordination practise by providing plenty of opportunities to hone their skills in their play . Once your child is happy and able to play completely independently, they will gain new skills and learn how what they see, feel and do works together. Building blocks, construction sets and other early STEM-themed toys give your little one plenty of scope to stretch their imaginations and bring their ideas to life – we’ve got a great range for you to explore!