How can you improve your child’s Coordination Skills?

Coordination Skills in children usually refers to whether they can get their arms and legs to work together effectively!

Whether playing games, taking part in sport or doing schoolwork, coordination skills are a must. And many tasks which require coordination also require the child to be able to plan well – being able to time their movements, predict what will happen if they do something, and react to a situation (eg a ball coming at them more slowly than expected).
For the purpose of this website, we are going to focus on two types of coordination:
bilateral coordination and hand eye coordination.

Children with poor bilateral coordination may struggle with gross motor games such as hopping, jumping, catching a ball or beating a drum with rhythm. They may also struggle with fine motor tasks such as tying shoelaces, threading beads and cutting with scissors, as these all require both hands to work together well.

If your child struggles with any of these, then try some
bilateral integration activities at home. There is also a page of playdough activities that improves bilateral coordination as well as fine motor skills.

Catching a ball and being able to hit a ball with a bat are obvious examples, but many parents don’t realise that good hand-eye coordination can also help a child’s handwriting.

Try some easy hand eye coordination games. Activities used for hand-eye coordination can also help develop some of the visual tracking skills needed for reading.

Read this article by Teacher Support Force to see how Reading Skills can also be improved through coordination games such as skipping!

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