Visual motor skills are crucial for academic and life skills development. Infants and children develop these skills by mimicking facial movements and reaching for toys. Delayed development can be caused by lack of interest or experience, as well as conditions like autism or visual impairment.
Visual motor skills are the ability to relate body movements to what is seen through the eyes. The development of these skills is important in infants and children because any delay in the progression of visual motor skills can lead to difficulties in academic and life skills throughout childhood and adult life. Linking vision with movement allows both fine and gross motor skills to be learned as behaviors that ultimately act separately from vision.
During infancy, visual motor skills are judged by developmental age rather than a child’s birth age; the use of a developmental age allows therapists to work with children with visual motor impairments using appropriate games and activities. Skills develop from birth as babies interact with adults by mimicking facial movements and reaching for brightly colored toys. The general developmental age categories are divided into infants up to three years and children four to eight years and nine to 13 years.
Initially, muscle development begins in a child’s upper body at the head and shoulders, before progressing down to the lower extremities in later years. The first visual motor skills developed connect what is seen with the movements of a child’s face and hands. Entering the second stage of development, ages four to eight, children develop skills that revolve around movements of larger muscle groups, such as jumping and leaping.
During a child’s first attempts to complete a task or activity, heavy reliance is placed on the use of vision; as the activity is repeated, the movements are committed to memory and become a behavioral pattern of the body. Writing skills are some of the most important academic motor skills learned, with preschoolers learning to draw and create shapes. By the time a child reaches the ages of 13-13, the visual motor skills of linking vision with hand movements that mimic writing are needed to develop strong handwriting techniques.
Delayed development of visual skills can be caused by a number of reasons; some children have little interest in a given activity or have limited experience performing an activity. Fine motor skills require movement of small groups of muscles within the body, such as those that control the hands, fingers, and toes. Gross motor skills require movement of a larger area and require a large number of muscles; the movements of these muscles are necessary for activities such as walking and jumping. Conditions like autism or a visual impairment can cause delays in these visual motor skills, as can simple lack of experience.
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