Visual motor skills, also known as hand-eye coordination, refers to the effective communication between our eyes and hands. Visual motor skills are imperative for producing coordinated movement which enables children to participate in daily activities including handwriting, completing puzzles, tying shoe laces, and catching a ball. This skill domain involves the processing of visual information (e.g. seeing a shape) to complete a specific motor pattern (e.g. placing the shape into the correct shape sorter slot).

Visual motor skills are important foundational skills for academic success, self care, and may impact a child’s ability to successfully interact with their environment. Visual motor skills may affect how a child performs in their academic environment such as reproducing shapes, learning how to write, and completing assignments. In regards to self care skills, a child may demonstrate difficulty engaging a zipper, manipulating clothing fasteners, and translating food from the utensil to mouth. Functional play skills are often heavily visual motor based. For example, completing a puzzle, building a tower with blocks, and cutting a paper doll out with scissors are functional play skills that involve the use of visual motor skills. When it comes to full body activities, visual motor plays a role in a child’s ability to successfully catch/throw a ball, kick a ball to a target, and participate in movement games such as twister. If a child is having difficulty in any of these areas it may impact their self esteem and confidence across environments and they may resist engaging in visual motor based tasks.

-Difficulty with handwriting, reproducing shapes, or numbers

-Challenges with line adherence when coloring or writing

-Difficulty completing shape sorting tasks and puzzles

-Difficulty with scissor skills

-Difficulty with fine and gross motor coordination

-Difficulty manipulating clothing fasteners

-Difficulty translating food from the utensil to their mouth

Occupational therapy improves visual motor skills using a myriad of strategies to build mastery and skill maintenance. Play based interventions to target visual motor skills include craft activities, mazes, and interactive games such as bowling.