What is hand-eye coordination?

The term ‘hand-eye coordination’ to me was like an alien until my son was two years old. It was then that I put him in a Montessori and the principal explained to me the importance of hand-eye coordination. It saddened me how much I have missed before this. If I were to know it earlier, probably my son would have been better developed. From then on, I try to read more on childhood development and how different motor skills and coordination help in the children’s future learning ability.

Hand-eye coordination is the ability to guide the movement of the hands with the eyes. It is vital for the children to have hand-eye coordination because by the time children start to learn to write, their writing will stay within the lines. I have seen children who struggle writing within the lines although they have tried their best. To avoid such frustration, parents can try to stimulate their children’s hand-eye coordination right after they are born.

Although it is popular among parents, many people do not realise that cloth mat with objects hanging on it is a useful tool for training children’s hand-eye coordination. Infants who are allowed to lie down on the cloth mat will be attracted to the objects hanging above them. Being attracted by the colourful objects, they will stretch up their hands to grab them. Many times the babies will not be able to grab the objects but just manage to touch or push them. That is the start of how they train their hands to go to where their eyes are looking at.

For toddlers who already know how to sit up, they should be allowed to play lacing cards, stringing beads, nesting boxes, stacking cones, completing puzzles, kneading playdough or even cutting some recycled papers with the assistance of adults. One of my friends likes to let her daughters play pouring water or dry sand from one container to the other. The activities above not only stimulate the children’s hand-eye coordination but training the children to have patience and staying focused.

Older children are encouraged to be involved in outdoor playground activities such as climbing steel bars, monkey bars, slide, mock rock-climbing wall or balancing on a plank of wood. Besides the abovementioned activities, parents also can let children handle house chores such as washing the dishes (make sure the dishes are unbreakable), sweeping the floor or picking up toys.

It is vital for parents to understand the importance of hand-eye coordination and using the appropriate materials to develop their children’s coordination. Parents have to understand that well-developed hand-eye coordination and motor skills will provide a speedy learning ability when the children enter primary school. If the foundation is not strong, children will face difficulties in the future learning process, thus, pressure and frustrations will arise. 

The above article is published in The Star online newspaper:

http://parenthots.com/parents_corner/soapbox/Realising-the-importance-of-hand-eye-coordination.aspx