how will you develop eye hand coordination in preschool children?
Answers
Answer:
logo
logo
How to Improve Your Child’s Hand-Eye Coordination
shutterstock_287152637
The term “hand-eye coordination” describes the ability of your body’s visual system to process information received through the eyes and use it to direct the movements of the hands. This skill is clearly demonstrated in sports such as tennis, baseball and basketball, but even simple daily tasks require the brain, eyes and limbs to work together.
Hand-eye coordination is a complex neurological process that should be encouraged from an early age. It works in conjunction with our fine-motor skills (needed for tasks such as doing up buttons) and also our gross-motor skills (needed for catching a ball). Without good hand-eye coordination, we would not be able to carry out everyday tasks such as writing, pouring a drink, or putting on our socks.
The development of hand-eye coordination
From the basics such as picking up a toy to more major movements that involve a mature complexity of motions, hand-eye coordination builds as your child grows. As newborns, your baby’s hand movements are mainly reflexive in nature, but as they grow, their movements will be more purposeful.
By the time your baby is five-months-old, they should be reaching and grasping for objects and moving toys from one hand to the other. As the end of the first year approaches, this skill develops to include a pincer grip, capable of picking up smaller items such as dry pieces of cereal.
From two-years-old, your toddler should be able to pick up and stack five building blocks, hold a writing utensil, and hold a spoon to eat. By three-years-old, he or she should be capable of turning pages in a book, and drawing circles.
Once at preschool, your child should now have a good grasp on their hand-eye coordination. By now they have developed spacial awareness that coordinates with their hand-eye abilities to position small objects and better control eating utensils. Hand-eye coordination will continue to develop with practice, and by school age their fine motor skills have matured enough to let him or her master most basic hand-eye coordination tasks. Your school age child should be able to print letters, colour between the lines, feed themselves, do up zippers and buttons, and manipulate objects easily. As years go on, hand-eye coordination skills become more sophisticated, allowing them to play sports such as basketball, tennis and baseball.
Encouraging hand-eye coordination
There are many ways to encourage development of hand-eye coordination in children. Just like any other skill, the more time spent doing activities that involve hand-eye coordination, the easier the skill will become.
For infants, play is an essential part of developing hand-eye coordination. Play allows your baby to learn how to reach and grab for objects, as well as understand cause and effect.
shutterstock_23529910
For infants, try:
placing objects of interest within reach
shaking a rattle or plastic keys
playing with toys that make noise
attaching wrist rattles
building a tower for baby to knock down
shutterstock_243438673
Once they reach toddler age, try:
throwing and catching a ball
colouring in activities
connect-the-dot activities
stringing beads
bouncing balls
tossing a small bean bag into a hula hoop
rolling a ball to hit down bottles
playing “Simon Says”
finger painting
shutterstock_182611568
For children five years and over, try:
balloon batting
balancing on a beam
suspended ball activities
walking on low walls
kicking a ball into a goal
juggling
tennis
playing basket catch
playing handball
over and under throwing
puzzles
Lego
Jenga
sewing
relay races