| Hand-eye coordination and visual discrimination key to | | | | pattern can be a great learning experience as well as |
| literacy | | | | very satisfying for children. |
| Sometimes the best thing you can do for your child's | | | | Puzzles, matching games, and the like are also |
| early literacy development is simply to let them play. | | | | important to help children learn visual discrimination. |
| Turn off the TV and anything battery operated then | | | | Visual discrimination is the ability of the brain to quickly |
| let your child pick up their toys, build blocks or duplos, or | | | | tell the difference among visually similar letters, like "p," |
| manipulate puzzles or game pieces. Not only are you | | | | "b," and "q" or between words such as "was" and |
| giving your child the gift of childhood, something we so | | | | "saw." Students with difficulty making these distinctions |
| often fail to do in today's hectice, achievement-oriented | | | | often struggle with learning to read, write, and spell. |
| world, but you are actually helping them build skills that | | | | Playing games, engaging in activities, or with toys that |
| are key to learning to read and write. | | | | help children discriminate among similar objects can be |
| Hand-eye coordination is a necessary skill for written | | | | fun for the child and help them master an important |
| language and the best way to help your child develop | | | | preliteracy skill. My son loves to help his father sort |
| this skill is to let them play with toys and activities that | | | | change before rolling it to be deposited at the bank. |
| involve looking at, using, and discriminating a number of | | | | Sure we could use an electronic sorter but our son |
| elements. Puzzles are obviously a great activity for this | | | | loves to engage in the activity and it is a valuable |
| but so are manipulative toys such as blocks, duplos, | | | | learning experience for him. |
| and magnetix. | | | | Visual discrimination can often be learned with your |
| My son just spent over an hour this evening playing | | | | child's existing toys. Matchbox cars, dolls, and action |
| dominos with his father -- OK they weren't so much | | | | figures all offer the opportunity for your child to learn |
| playing as setting up complex pattterns and then | | | | visual discrimination. |
| knocking them down -- but I didn't tell them they were | | | | Encourage children to work their wrist and finger |
| engaged in a preliteracy activity. They were just | | | | muscles as well as work on their coordination and |
| having fun together. | | | | small-motor skills to help prepare them for the |
| Studies have shown that spending time on hand-eye | | | | handwriting practice in their future. Activities to help |
| coordination activities improves children's ability to learn | | | | with these goals include legos and other building sets, |
| to read and lessens the difficulty they face during the | | | | playdough, puzzles, pegboards, beads and other table |
| process. In fact engaging in a variety of craft activities, | | | | toys. These fun, natural activities help children improve |
| which most kids love, can be very beneficial so add | | | | their cognitive and fine motor skills without frustration or |
| play dough, stickers, and glue sticks to your list of | | | | boredom. |
| educational supplies. | | | | My son engages in many activities every day that |
| Research shows that early practice of hand-eye | | | | encourage hand-eye coordination and visual |
| coordination activities reduces the risk for reading | | | | discrimination. I don't suggest the activities to him. I |
| difficulties. | | | | make the toys and manipulatives available to him and |
| ACTIVITIES TO ENCOURAGE | | | | he chooses them on his own. The activities vary he |
| Puzzles help develop hand-eye coordination because | | | | may go an entire week building and rebuilding his |
| learning to control hands and fingers according to | | | | wooden train set every day and then the next week |
| information received from sight is a coordination skill | | | | his magnetix set dominates his play time. Some days |
| that aids children in early attempts at reading and | | | | he plays with both together and pulls in his duplos and |
| writing. Determining out which piece goes where, | | | | wooden blocks for added fun. It doesn't matter to me |
| working to fit pieces into place by making adjustments, | | | | which activity he chooses because I know he is having |
| and seeing a sequence develop in an organized | | | | fun, challenging his imagination,and learning. |