5 Benefits Of Hand-Eye Coordination

The definition of hand-eye coordination is the ability of our hands and our eyes to work simultaneously. Hand-eye coordination is important as it helps people to carry out everyday activities such as picking up objects, brushing their hair, brushing their teeth and writing. Hand-eye coordination is not something everyone may be skilled at, especially if they are of older age, are a young child, or have certain medical conditions. There are exercises and activities that may help improve hand-eye coordination as it is an important and beneficial skill to have. The benefits of having good hand-eye coordination can include performance enhancement in sporting competitions, better academic performance, reduced risk of falls and injuries, improved social skills and improved growth of children. The possible benefits of hand-eye coordination are listed below.

Performance Enhancement in Sporting Competition: Performance enhancement in sporting competitions can be a benefit of having good eye-hand coordination as it allows people to respond quicker when performing actions such as catching and throwing balls, as well as help with accuracy.
Better Academic Performance: Better academic performance can be one benefit of good hand-eye coordination, particularly for children in areas such as mathematics.
Reduced Risk of Falls and Injuries: A reduced risk of falls and injuries may be a benefit of good hand-eye coordination as it can make people less clumsy and quicker in reaction times.
Improved Social Skills: Improved social skills for kids is a possible benefit of having good eye-hand coordination as it may help kids interact better with parents, in turn developing good communication and social skills.
Improved Development of Children: Improved development in children is another benefit of having good hand-eye coordination skills as it assists in helping children learn how to communicate and to do basic tasks such as reading, writing, tying shoe laces and doing up zippers.

1. Performance Enhancements in Sporting Competition

One of the benefits of hand-eye coordination is enhanced performance in sporting competitions and activities. Hand-eye coordination is an important part of playing most sports, including tennis, cricket, baseball and rugby. Hand-eye coordination helps those who play sports perform the actions such as tracking, catching or hitting a ball. The better someone’s hand-eye coordination, the better their performance may be in sporting competitions and activities. According to the Technogym Newsroom, good hand-eye coordination is beneficial in sports as it helps with anticipating movement, initiating action and reaction time.

2. Better Academic Performance

Better academic performance can be one of the benefits of having good hand-eye coordination as an awareness of space and environment has been linked with being able to think more abstractly. A study published in Psychological Science posited that children who have good hand-eye coordination may have better basic academic skills, in particular mathematics. Although the study did not state what the exact connection between hand-eye coordination and academic skills was, it is theorised that the neural circuits in the brain that are activated when a child tries to understand their environment and the way they operate spatially are the same neural circuitry that controls abstract thinking and number processing.

3. Reduced Risk of Falls and Injuries

A benefit of good hand-eye coordination is that it may assist in reducing the risk of falls and injuries, particularly among older people. Having good hand-eye coordination skills may make people quicker to react to situations for example stopping a fall or catching themselves when they trip. Hand-eye coordination is an important skill in helping people with basic day-to-day activities such as walking, taking the stairs, picking up and putting down objects. Having poor hand-eye coordination may make a person clumsy, or reduce their reaction time when carrying out these daily tasks which may make them more prone to falling over, resulting in injuries.

4. Improved Social Skills

One of the benefits of having good hand-eye coordination is that it may lead to improved social skills in children. According to an article by Psychology Today, it is thought that if a child has good hand-eye coordination skills, they can better interact with parents, which can improve communication and social skills. A 2013 study by cognitive scientists at Indiana University showed that when kids and parents interact in a way that focuses the hands and the eyes on objects, they can communicate and work together as equals, which can in turn improve parent-child communication and language learning.

5. Improved Development in Children

A benefit of hand-eye coordination is that it may help improve the development of children in areas such as writing, throwing or catching objects, lacing shoes, doing up zippers, communicating with people and improving motor skills. According to Ready Kids Occupational Therapy, hand-eye coordination is a beneficial skill for children to have as it will assist them in learning how to do basic actions and developing everyday skills. According to an article published in Psychology Today, the better a child’s hand-eye coordination, the better they can interact with their parents and develop communication and social skills. According to Ready Kids Occupational Therapy, having good eye-hand coordination also helps in developing fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Fine motor skills refer to using the small muscles in the hands, fingers and wrists. Gross motor skills refer to using the larger muscles in the legs and arms.

What is Hand-Eye Coordination?

Hand-eye coordination refers to the ability of our hands and eyes to work simultaneously or in coordination. Hand-eye coordination involves our eyes taking in visual information, and the brain responding by sending signals to the arms and hands to react, according to Harvard Health. Hand-eye coordination is an important skill to have as it helps us to complete many everyday activities including picking things up, writing and driving.

Two kids in soccer clothes playing catch with a soccer ball in a park.

What More to Know About Hand-Eye Coordination?

If you want to know more about hand-eye coordination, it is a good idea to speak to your doctor or healthcare professional. Hand-eye coordination is an important part of daily life. It is a skill that helps people do basic activities such as writing, driving, putting a key in a lock or cooking. If you need assistance with hand-eye coordination, a healthcare professional will be able to provide advice and recommend ways to improve this skill.

How to Improve Hand-Eye Coordination?

There are several ways to improve hand-eye coordination including participating in activities such as knitting, drawing and playing video games as well as taking up sports such as tennis. Hand-eye coordination is a crucial skill to have as it helps us to complete many tasks such as driving, writing and cooking. For children, good hand-eye coordination is important as it helps them better communicate with the world around them and learn everyday activities such as writing and zipping up jackets. Despite hand-eye coordination being a crucial everyday skill, not everyone will have the same level of hand-eye coordination, especially those of older age. According to Havard Health, people over 60 may see a decline in their hand-eye coordination due to a Western diet, lack of exercise and a lack of dopamine. There are ways that people with poor hand-eye coordination can practise and potentially improve this skill including participating in activities such as playing catch, knitting, drawing and writing and playing video games as well as taking up a sport. For children, building blocks or shape sorters may help improve hand-eye coordination. The ways to potentially improve hand-eye coordination are listed below.

Playing Catch: Playing catch may help improve hand-eye coordination as it requires the hands and eyes to work together to catch and throw a ball.
Knitting: Knitting may help improve hand-eye coordination as it requires concentration and fine motor skills to coordinate the hands and eyes to move the needles.
Drawing and Writing: Drawing and writing may help improve hand-eye coordination as it requires the hands and eyes to work together to move the pen or pencil across the paper.
Playing Video Games: Playing video games may help improve hand-eye coordination, according to a 2016 study by Li Li, Rongrong Chen, and Jing Chen. This study tested the hand-eye coordination of non-gamers to those who did play video games, noting that gamers had quicker reaction times and better accuracy skills.
Taking Up a Sport: Taking up a sport, particularly a ball-based sport like tennis or basketball may also improve hand-eye coordination, as it requires the hands and eyes to work together to track, catch and throw or hit a ball.

What are Some Everyday Tasks that Require Good Hand-Eye Coordination?

There are a variety of everyday tasks that require good hand-eye coordination including driving, writing, cooking, picking up objects and zipping up jackets. Hand-eye coordination refers to the ability of the eyes and hands to work simultaneously to complete movement. Hand-eye coordination is crucial in helping us complete many everyday tasks. For example, for a person to drive, they need to have good hand-eye coordination so the hands can move the steering wheel and direct the car where it needs to go. Hand-eye coordination is also necessary when cooking, as the hands and eyes need to work together to pick objects up, measure, stir and flip.

What are the Best Sports to Improve Hand-Eye Coordination?

The best sports to improve hand-eye coordination are generally ball-based sports such as tennis, cricket, basketball, baseball and rugby. Ball-based sports are the best sports to help improve hand-eye coordination as during these sports, the hands and eyes need to work together to track a ball, catch it and throw it. According to a study by ESPN, baseball and softball are two of the top sports that require hand-eye coordination as there is a high degree of accuracy and reaction time involved.

A person aiming to throw a basketball into a basketball hoop.

Does Poor Hand-Eye Coordination Increase Injuries?

Poor hand-eye coordination may not necessarily lead to an increased rate of injuries but may make life more difficult, particularly among older people. Due to a decline in cognitive function, hand-eye coordination tends to naturally decline as a person ages, according to the National Library of Medicine. Poor hand-eye coordination can make everyday tasks such as picking things up, putting keys in locks and driving difficult, which may lead to difficulties in everyday life. Poor hand-eye coordination may make something like cooking harder, which may lead to actions or accidents resulting in injuries. However, taking up activities such as knitting, and drawing or low-impact sports such as ping-pong may prevent poor eye-hand coordination from worsening in older age and help make everyday tasks easier.

Does Poor Hand-Eye Coordination Affect Reaction Time?

Yes, poor hand-eye coordination can affect a person’s reaction time and how they react to something. According to Radford University, reaction time refers to how quickly an organism, in the case of this article a human, responds to a stimulus. Hand-eye coordination plays a role in reaction time, especially in sports like baseball or basketball, as both skills need to work together to hit or catch the ball. If hand-eye coordination is poor, it may affect how well a person reacts and impact whether or not a ball is caught.

Is Poor Hand-Eye Coordination a Risk Factor for Falling?

Poor hand-eye coordination can be somewhat of a risk factor for falling. Hand-eye coordination refers to our hands and eyes working together and completing a movement and is a crucial skill in completing daily tasks such as driving, cooking and writing. Poor hand-eye coordination may lead to falls if, for example, someone misses the handrail on a stairwell when reaching for it and falls over.