Parents who want to participate in their child’s spelling journey always ask what they can do to help. We tell them about feeding the brain (listening to age-appropriate podcasts, reading books, engaging in rich conversation), and they yearn to do MORE. So, I always set them up with cool, enjoyable activities that presume competence and build hand-eye coordination.
We all know that ocular motor apraxia is a big issue we work on. There are 12 cranial nerves that are part of our neurology. Four of these are assigned to managing the work that eyes do. Many spellers are not able to direct their gaze successfully to the task at hand. There are blogs on exercises and ways to improve ocular motor skills. These skills help a speller to either continuously track something or move their eyes efficiently from one focal point to another.
This blog is devoted to a different but related motor skill: working with both the hand and the eye to execute a task, or hand-eye coordination.
Hand-eye coordination plays a critical role in spelling, as it involves synchronizing the eyes’ ability to track the intended letter on the letterboard with the finger the individual uses to spell with. While spelling, the eyes focus on the target letter. This allows the brain and body to work together to guide the finger to the correct letter on the letterboard, with precision. This coordination enables accurate spelling, which is essential for answering questions and expressing thoughts, ideas, wants, and needs.
Many spellers in the acquisition phase tend to poke the letter wherever their pointer finger happens to be. To spell, they have to learn to look, then poke. In other words, the eye has to coordinate with the hand -hand-eye coordination.
In an S2C session, we are constantly building hand-eye coordination skills, not only with spelling but also with activities that are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile – VAKTivities. Here are examples of activities that can be used to help build these skills. These are great for parents to do to support their speller.
- Puzzles
- Sticker by Number
- Color by Number
- Jenga
- Darts
- Lacing cards
- Fishing game
- Catch with a ball
- Bean Bag Toss
- Ring Toss
- Balloon volleyball
- Dot-to-Dot drawings
- Matching games
- Popping bubbles
You can even create your own hand-eye coordination activities that have high cognitive content. Here are a few examples –
- Giant Wall Maze
- Just draw your own maze, add words/pictures that are
meaningful – Like Abraham Lincoln and Stove Pipe Hat at the beginning and end of the maze.
- Just draw your own maze, add words/pictures that are
- Giant Wall Word Search Puzzle
- Use keywords from your lesson, or family names, or current
events
- Use keywords from your lesson, or family names, or current
- Giant Wall Crossword Puzzle
- There are websites that allow you to generate crosswords
- Scavenger Hunt
- Write up a list of objects on a whiteboard/chart. Have spellers look around the room to locate, go to the object, and place it in a pile.
- Match information OR pictures to charts/graphs/diagrams that have been discussed
- Throwing a ball at a specific target.
You can use keywords from a lesson and tape them on the wall. When you call out a keyword, their eyes have to locate the word, and they have to throw the ball at it.
Activities to build hand-eye coordination skills don’t have to occur only during an S2C session but can also be practiced at home or in the community. Feel free to use your imagination to incorporate everyday objects and activities into fun, engaging exercises to build these skills.
About the Author
Lindsay Morgan is a dedicated certified S2C practitioner at CrimsonRise
with a passion for crafting innovative VAKT experiences that support hand-
eye coordination. Outside of her work, she enjoys traveling, photography,
exploring new restaurants, and practicing drums.
