10 Best Games to Improve Hand-eye Coordination in Kids
Are you worried about your children’s mental growth? Do you wonder if your kids are acquiring much-needed coordination skills or not?
Do you feel clueless about how you can facilitate their growth? Have you been searching the web about how to improve hand-eye coordination?
Do not worry! You have come to the right place. We understand the importance of hand-eye coordination among other motor skills and we are here to help you. Read on to know more about hand-eye coordination and the 10 Best hand-eye coordination exercises/games for kids.
What is Hand-Eye Coordination?
Hand-Eye coordination is the ability of human beings to perform movements or tasks with hands that are actually guided by eyes. For a child, it is extremely important to have good hand-eye coordination. Basically, during hand-eye coordination, the hands and the sight work together in order to perform tasks. More often than not, such tasks are required to be done with more speed and better accuracy, for example when hitting the tennis ball with a racquet. These tasks require even better and improved hand-eye coordination.
This hand-eye coordination is one of the most important skills for humans in their daily lives. Even the simplest tasks such as aiming a trash paper into the dustbin require this coordination. Kids need this hand-eye coordination not only for performing everyday tasks but also for playing sports, learning, reading and writing at school.
Children of young age need to develop this hand and eye coordination because we are not born with excellent coordination skills. We need to practice it through various activities.
How to improve hand-eye coordination in Kids?
Improving hand-eye coordination in kids is not very difficult. You can help your kids do it even when they are playing and having fun. This development will happen naturally as they perform various fun activities. After all, learning should be fun always!
As parents, you must motivate the kids by allowing them more time to play every day. You can also include certain games and activities that will help in enhancing the skill. It is of utmost importance that such skills are developed and improved at early ages for kids because most learning takes place by the age of four. Read on to know about some of the best hand-eye coordination games for kids.
10 Best Hand-eye Coordination Games for Kids
1. Balloon Toss
This is absolutely fun for all the kids. And you barely need any preparation either. All you need to do is to blow up a balloon (it does not matter if it is small or large) and ask your kid to keep hitting it such that it stays up in the air for as long as they can. This is a great fun exercise. It is excellent for the development of coordination since it requires your kids to move and think fast in order to prevent the balloon from touching the floor/ ground. They will also have to make work their eyes and hands simultaneously.
2. Rolling A Ball
The ball rolling activity is especially suited for toddlers and preschoolers. It is easy and the least dangerous. Make your kids sit with their legs apart and ask them to prevent the ball from touching their body when it is rolled towards them. Now roll a ball towards them. You can start by keeping the pace of the ball slow and the direction similar for many rolls. As your children progress, you can increase the pace and bring variety in the directions. During this exercise, your kids will have to watch the ball carefully and then coordinate their hands such that they are able to stop the ball at the right time.
3. Throwing and Catching a Ball
This is most probably the best exercise for developing children’s hand-eye coordination. It is the simplest and the most effective but you also have to be very careful with this one. Practise catching and throwing different kinds of balls with your children. Your kids will need these skills later in sports as well. You can use different sized balls, bigger ones in the beginning. Later you can move on to playing with smaller balls that require improved hand-eye coordination. You can add variety to the game by bouncing the ball at times instead of throwing directly. Either way, make sure to pay attention to the pace so that kids do not end up hurting themselves.
4. Building Blocks
Toys such as building blocks are an amazing way to hone the attention spans of the kids as well as motor skills and coordination. Some such games are wooden blocks and Lego. As a caregiver, you might need to tidy up the place later as a little mess may be created because of this game. But we are sure that this is nothing that concerns you when your children’s betterment is at the question.
5. Riding a Scooter or Cycling
Although you might have to spend a few extra bucks for getting a scooter or a cycle, it will be absolutely worth the expenditure. This is so because your kids will not only learn better coordination but will also make themselves more able with learning the skill to ride a bike.
This will come handy for them in a lot of places. Not to forget, cycling is always fun for the kids! You can check our review on the Best Scooters for Kids in UK to get one for your kids.
6. Drawing
Which child doesn’t like to draw? Drawing not only helps in the improvement of hand-eye coordination but will also bring out the creativity in the kids. The parents can bond with the kids while enjoying this activity. This is a basic fun activity that most kids love to do daily. To add more variety to it, you can use different mediums and modes for drawing such as colouring books, whiteboards, pencils, paints, crayons etc. Let your kids discover the artists in them while they also improve their coordination skills in the hindsight.
7. Finger Painting
A little messy but ten times more fun is the finger painting activity. This provides a much needed sensory experience to the kids while also acting as opportunities to build hand-eye coordination. For this, you can make your own finger paint at home using DIY techniques or buy ready-made paint from the market. There is no doubt in the fact that your kids are going to love getting their hands in the paint while you’ll be smiling at their progress not only in their art but also in their developing hand-eye coordination.
8. Puzzles
Puzzles are hands down one of the best activities for hand-eye coordination that can be taken up for your children. Solving puzzles helps in developing skills such as motor skills, shape recognition intellect, problem-solving, applying logic, paying more attention and very obviously the hand-eye coordination. We suggest that you choose wooden puzzles in place of cardboard puzzles since they are sturdier and easier to handle and store.
9. Threading and Lacing
Threading and lacing are one of the most effective activities that aid in bettering the hand-eye coordination. Let your kids thread the beads and complete a lacing card. Make this activity more fun and attractive by using chunky beads and laces. You can use pipe cleaners if you want the lacing component to be extra sturdy or if your child struggles with loose laces.
The activity of threading and lacing is actually great for developing your children’s concentration as well as for practising controlled movements. In order to complete this task, your children will have to coordinate their eyes and their fingers carefully. You can also make your own personalized threading or lacing cards by making use of various cardboard shapes and then punching holes in them. You can also use a set of lacing cards. The creativity here is yours. Maybe use threads with beads and a shoelace instead!
10. Working in the Garden
Even though this has a little space restriction, everyone can admit that gardening is a great way to get your kids to go outdoors and have a little fun while also developing their coordination and general gross motor skills. You will only need some gardening tools, your kids’ attention to you and you’re good to go. You can also make use of these as bonding exercises with your kids!
Our Advice
Our final advice to you would be to not stress over this! Now that you know why hand eye coordination is important for your kids and how you can help them improve it, we want you to relax and let it come naturally to your kids. Let them play and have fun. Pay more attention to their safety when they play and think of these as an opportunity for you to have fun with them. Do not hesitate from spending a few bucks here and there in the process. Afterall, it is your kids you’ll be spending the money on!
Laura is a trained primary teacher who takes a profound liking in interacting with and bringing out the best in children. She is also an ISSA certified pediatrician with an extensive practice of over 12 years. Laura comprehends the needs of infants and now compresses her expertise into writing thorough parenting guides to aid new parents.
