Eye/Hand Coordination

“Kids today can’t write.”

I hear this over and over from people I talk to. And the people I talk to, whether educators or parents, seem to be at a loss for what to do about it.

Walk into any modern classroom in America and you will find about 30% of the students who have illegible or extremely messy handwriting. And that’s only the beginning. If their handwriting is poor, then their math will be messy and full of mistakes as well. This carries over to every subject.

All of this is in direct relationship to eye/hand coordination and fine motor skills. Eye/hand coordination is the ability of the vision system to coordinate the information received through the eyes to control, guide, and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a specific task, such as handwriting or catching a ball. The eyes are used to direct attention and the hands execute the task.

Eye/hand coordination is so complex because it involves the visual guidance of both the eyes and the hands while simultaneously using eye movements to optimize vision. Since only hand movement directly affects the outer world, eye movements are the primary workers in this system. Can you see how a student who has a weak visual processing system would also have a greater possibility of having poor eye/hand coordination?