The Development of Eye Hand Coordination

By 8 months old your baby's visual system is mature.  By about 9 months old your baby is able to hold an item in both hands without dropping it, can transfer an item from one hand to the other, and grasp and release items voluntarily.  Your baby’s mature visual and fine motor systems will set the stage for the development of eye hand coordination. Eye hand coordination refers to the ability of ones eyes to direct attention toward a task, ones hands’ ability to execute that task, and the ability of both those things to happen simultaneously.  In realty your baby has been training for mature eye hand coordination activities since birth with all of the tracking and reaching he’s been busy with. Looking at you and reaching for you is one way your baby has been using his eye hand coordination skill at a very young age. Another way that your baby has been practicing his eye hand coordination skill is when at just a few months old he discovers his hands and moves and gazes at them repeatedly. Your babies practice with eye hand coordination skill will pay off at about 1 year old when he’ll be ready to play with items such as building blocks, nesting cups, shape sorters and pegs.  You can help promote the development of eye hand coordination skill by playing games such as bubble blowing and popping, and ball rolling and catching.