Visual Motor and Visual Perceptual: Activities to Develop Hand-eye Coordination

These instructions describe activities for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) patients to develop their hand-eye coordination.

Important information:

Children need to be able to use their hands and eyes together to do many activities. Coordination of the hands and eyes helps them play with toys, write, draw and do self-care activities such as tying shoes and buttoning a shirt.

Instructions for activities to develop hand-eye coordination:

• String beads, spools, macaroni or pieces of drinking straws.

• Use lacing and sewing cards.

• Squeeze squirt bottles or water guns at targets.

• Do activity pages with mazes or dot-to-dot games.

• Play with a Lite Brite or peg boards.

• Match and turn large nuts and bolts.

• Button, snap or zip clothing. You may also use toys made for learning these skills.

• Pour things from one container to another.

• Trace pictures out of favorite books.

• Play beach ball volleyball.

• Scoop, toss and catch: make your own scoops out of bleach bottles; just cut off the bottom. Toss and catch balls with the scoops.

• Play with an Etch-A-Sketch.

• Play with construction toys.

• Play catch with scarves, balloons, bean bags or balls.

• Bubbles: have your child pop them with their index finger or catch them on the wand.

• Target games: use balls and targets, horseshoes, basketball or darts.

• Marble play: roll a marble or small ball back and forth in plastic or paper tubing. Try not to let the ball roll out.

• Fishing: tie a small refrigerator magnet onto a string and the string onto a stick to make a fishing pole. Show your child how to pick up metal objects from the floor. Avoid using small objects that could be choking hazards.

• Toothpick bottle boggle: each player starts the game with ten toothpicks. Players take turns trying to place one of their toothpicks on the mouth of an upright soft drink bottle without knocking off any of the toothpicks already there. A player must take any toothpicks they knock off. The player getting rid of all their toothpicks first wins the game.

• Spooning popcorn: spread popcorn on a table or on paper on the floor. Give each player a teaspoon and a bowl. Within a set time, all the players try to get as much popcorn into their individual bowls as they can, using only their spoons. Hands, noses, and toes cannot be used to help. All players win because they can eat what they scooped!

Reviewed on December 7, 2022, by Jennifer Strebel, OTR/L