We are making an important change to our Strengths and Skills!  One of our skills has always been eye-hand coordination.  But that is limited in scope and doesn’t truly highlight the important conversation the eyes are having with the entire body as it moves.  The eyes must direct much of what we do, whether it is walking up and down stairs, throwing a ball, moving a pencil across the page, putting on shoes, or crossing the monkey bars.  These visual-motor skills (VMI) are essential developmental skills encompassing visual perception, eye-hand coordination, and visual processing.  More importantly, they are crucial in a child’s ability to efficiently complete everyday tasks such as writing, eating, and, of course, playing!

What are Visual Motor Skills? 

Visual motor skills are essential for coordinated and efficient use of the body, hands, and eyes, and proper integration of these skills is required for successful daily function.  VMI helps us process information as we observe, recognize, and use visual information when we interpret and recognize forms, shapes, figures, and objects.  Then, our brains can take this visual information and execute appropriate fine motor, gross motor, and sensory-motor responses.

The great thing is, children practice and build VMI skills when they play.  The more physical that play, the stronger the neural connections laid and the more the brain works with the eyes and the body to practice these skills.  Through the trial and error of physical play, children’s brains and bodies learn the VMI dance and perfect each execution which in turn makes school work and life work easier.  Activities such as throwing and catching a ball, coloring within lines, and focusing on gross motor movement that requires timed movements, are a great place to promote development of the VMI skills. These, in particular, engage both fine and gross motor skills, in conjunction with visual motor skills to accurately complete the tasks. They also lay a strong foundation that can be built on over time to continue developing and strengthening communication between the brain, eyes, and body.

Visual motor skills are made up of several areas:

  • Visual Processing Skills. These skills include movement of the eyes and the information collected through sight. Visual processing skills include visual tracking, convergence, saccades, visual fixation, and visual attention. A component of visual processing includes visual efficiency. This refers to the effective use of that visual information.
  • Visual Perceptual Skills. Visual perception is our ability to make sense of what we see. Visual perceptual skills are essential for everything from navigating our world to reading, writing, and manipulating items. Visual perception is made up of a complex combination of various skills including visual memory, visual closure, form constancy, visual spatial relations, visual discrimination, visual attention, visual sequential memory, and visual figure ground
  • Eye-Hand Coordination. Using the visual input effectively and efficiently with the hands allows us to manipulate and manage objects and items. This coordinated motor skill requires fine motor skill development. These motor skills allow us to collect visual information and use it in a motor action. Eye-hand coordination requires fine motor dexterity, strength, shoulder stability, and core stability.

Need ideas to build VMI skills?  Check out this list that can be implemented nearly anywhere, at anytime to encourage the natural progression of visual motor skills:

  • Jumping rope
  • Sitting in a dark room and with a flashlight, making shapes and letters on the wall
  • Swinging while throwing balls through a hoop
  • Word searches or “I Spy”
  • Making paper airplanes and throwing them
  • Stringing large beads onto a shoelace
  • Completing a puzzle (better and more fun with an adult!)
  • Tapping a balloon but don’t let it touch the ground!

Simply put, the eyes collect essential information that is relayed to the brain to interpret.  It will then signal the body how to react in response to the visual information.  The more children can practice these skills, the easier they become.  When children struggle with these skills for lack of practice, school is harder than it needs to be.

Check out our curriculum for preschoolers!

Our goal is to inspire YOU with the brain science and logic of moving for improved learning and behavior.  Our Curriculum and Playbook are designed to empower teachers with the tools they need to get their students moving to fill the play gap that is keeping kids from mastering everything from self-regulation and self-control to those meaty classroom necessities like holding a book or a pencil, sitting still in a chair, and holding letters still on a page.

Contact Kelsey Schmidt at Kelsey.Schmidt@pivottoplay.com. 

Learn more here.

We are on the move!

We have trainings scheduled from Oakland, California, to Memphis, Tennessee in 2025!  Are you ready to Outsmart the Wiggles too?  Contact Kelsey Schmidt at Kelsey.Schmidt@pivottoplay.com.

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