Visual-Motor Skills

Visual-motor skills involve how we use our eyes and hands together in a coordinated way. 

These skills are essential for effectively integrating visual information with motor actions, allowing us to perform tasks that require precise eye-hand coordination and spatial tasks. Everyday activities such as buttoning, piercing food with a fork, drawing, playing sports, and driving require an integrated visual-motor system. 

We require the integration of three important underlying skills in order to have appropriate Visual-Motor Skills:

1. Visual Perception

2. Fine Motor Control

3. Eye-Hand Coordination

Visual-Motor skills are necessary for so many activities that we participate in throughout the day.  

• Academic Performance: Drawing, writing, cutting, completing crafts, typing, etc.

• Sports and Physical Activities/ Leisure: catching, throwing, and navigating obstacles. 

• Activities of Daily Living: Dressing, brushing teeth/hair, toiletings, using utensils when eating, etc. 

• Play: Building with blocks, puzzles, coloring, legos, cars/trains and tracks, pegs and peg boards, scooping/pouring, tweezer and tongs, mazes, etc.

• Academic: tracing/copying/writing prewriting shapes, writing letters/numbers, cross word puzzles, typing, 

• Arts and Crafts: Coloring, drawing, cutting, gluing, stapling, taping, use of a ruler

• Sports and Physical Activities: Catching/throwing ball, bean bag toss, playground, jump rope, baseball, basketball, 

• Activities of Daily Living: 

1. Assess visual motor skills

2. Create a plan of care

3. Monitor as needed and provide adaptations