Understanding Visual-Motor Skills: What Every Parent Needs to Know

Categories: ASD and DD, Child-focused

By William Stanton, OTR/L

[This column was published in the West Springfield Republican on December 26, 2024.]

When we think of vision, we often focus on acuity, or the sharpness or clarity of our sight. However, vision is about much more than just how clearly we see. You may have heard the term "visual-motor skills,” but what does that really mean?

Simply put, visual-motor skills allow us to interpret what we see and respond with our body accordingly. These skills describe how well we coordinate what we see with what we do.

Visual motor deficits are common among school-aged children, but significantly more prevalent among children with autism. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1130185/full

One common example of visual-motor coordination is eye-hand coordination, which is the ability to use our eyes and hands together to perform a task like catching a ball. Visual-motor skills are essential for a wide range of everyday activities – everything from writing and reading to playing sports, dressing, and finding objects. As an occupational therapist, I often work with children to develop these skills, helping them perform daily tasks more independently. In this article, I’ll explain more about visual-motor skills, how to recognize if your child might need support, and what you can do to help.

What is involved in visual-motor skills?
Visual-motor skills cover a broad range of abilities. While eye-hand coordination is one well-known example, there are many other essential skills involved. Here are a few key components of visual-motor integration:

Visual Tracking: The ability to follow a moving object with the eyes. This is crucial when tracking a ball during sports, watching a moving vehicle while driving, or even following the text while reading.
Visual Perception: The ability to make sense of what we see. This includes recognizing shapes, identifying patterns, distinguishing between letters and numbers, or judging distances and depth.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge the relative distance between objects. For instance, depth perception helps us determine how far away a car is when we are crossing the street or how to safely navigate an obstacle.
Visual Discrimination: The ability to differentiate between similar objects or symbols based on visual features such as size, shape, color, or orientation. This skill is especially important for reading and writing – helping us tell the difference between letters like "b" and "d" or finding the right item in a cluttered drawer.

Signs your child may need visual-motor support
If you're concerned that your child may be struggling with visual-motor skills, the best way to start is by playing games with them. Games such as catch, puzzles, dot-to-dot, coloring, or "spot-the-difference" are great for observing how your child engages with visual-motor tasks.

Here are some signs that might indicate your child could benefit from visual-motor support:

Difficulty with matching items or identifying differences: If your child struggles to match clothing or find differences between two similar objects, they may have challenges with visual discrimination.
Problems with following moving objects: If your child has trouble tracking an object with their eyes (without moving their head), this may suggest difficulty with visual tracking.
Struggling to locate items in busy environments: Difficulty finding an object against a busy background (like a toy in a cluttered room) could be a sign of visual figure-ground difficulties.
Challenges with motor tasks: If your child has difficulty with tasks like catching, kicking, or throwing a ball, staying in the lines when coloring, or struggles with reading or writing, they may have a visual-motor integration issue.

What to do if you suspect visual-motor difficulties
If you notice any of the signs mentioned above, the next step is to consult a professional who can assess your child’s visual-motor skills. This could be an occupational therapist, optometrist, or pediatrician. Based on their assessment, these clinicians can provide individualized recommendations for exercises or interventions for your child. These activities can be adapted for children with communication barriers or who are non-verbal and will be individualized by the specialist based on their assessments.

Fortunately, visual-motor skills can be learned; they aren’t something we are simply born with. Through practice and repetition, children can improve these skills. The key is to make practice fun and motivating! Continue playing games like the ones listed above that promote visual-motor development, and be patient as your child builds these skills over time.

For more information on visual-motor integration and to find more engaging activities to practice at home, check out the following resources:

https://www.optometrists.org/vision-therapy/guide-vision-and-learning-difficulties/

https://www.theottoolbox.com/visual-motor-skills/

https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/visual-motor-integration.html

William Stanton, OTR/L, is an Occupational Therapist at the May Center School for Autism and Developmental Disabilities in Chicopee, Mass. He can be contacted at wstanton@mayinstitute.org.

About May Institute
May Institute is a nonprofit organization that is a national leader in the field of applied behavior analysis and evidence-based interventions, serving autistic individuals and individuals with other developmental disabilities, brain injury, neurobehavioral disorders, and other special needs. Founded nearly70 years ago, we provide a wide range of exceptional educational and rehabilitative services across the lifespan. May Institute operates five schools for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities, including one in Chicopee, Mass. For more information, call 800.778.7601 or visit www.mayinstitute.org.