You may find that your toddler likes to run around the house trying to grab anything and everything they can get their little hands on. Books, kitchen utensils, cups, cutlery, you name it! They will grab anything that’s in their line of sight.

This is because your curious toddler is at the stage where they are trying to refine their grasp and figure out how to use their two hands together.

It’s our responsibility as parents to provide hand-eye coordination activities so that our child can practice these important movements.

So, let’s take a look at some of the activities that can help your child refine their hand-eye coordination.

Threading activities

Threading allows your little one to refine their hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and grasp. It also helps them practice using both hands together.

Up until your child is 12 months old, they will be able to remove large rings from a peg and replace them.

You can expect to see young toddlers place these rings together in order of size.

As your toddler gets a bit older they will be able to match the coloured rings with the corresponding coloured pegs.

You can then invite your little one to thread a ring horizontally instead of vertically. This movement is called crossing the midline, where your child makes a movement with one hand and crosses the midline of their body to the other side.

Then you can move on to threading with beads and string. You may first want to introduce your child to bead stringing by offering them some beads and a wooden stick (approximately 30 cm in length).

Once they have mastered threading beads onto a stick, they can move on to threading beads onto a shoelace. Make sure the shoelace has a wooden end on it (approximately 3-4 cm in length), which makes it easier for younger toddlers. Look out for threading sets that offer this.

Then your child can move on to threading large beads onto a regular shoelace and after that, smaller beads onto a thin shoelace.

Posting activities

Posting activities help your toddler learn to release an object into a container. This helps your little one to understand object permanence (i.e. knowing an object still exists even though it’s hidden).

Up until your child is 12 months old, they will be able to put balls into a box or bang a ball into a hole with a toy hammer.

Around the age of 12 months, your young toddler can move on to pushing different shapes through holes starting with a cylinder.

They can then move on to pushing more complex shapes through the hole, such as a cube or triangular prism.

As your toddler’s dexterity increases, they can start to insert a coin through a narrow coin slot. This is a particular favourite for toddlers!

Opening and closing activities

Another way your child can practice using their hands is to practice opening and closing various containers.

You can provide your little one with purses with clasps, empty jars, containers, and wallets with zippers etc. You can also hide different objects inside for your child to find.

Find boxes that lock, so your child can open the boxes with keys. Again, it’s a lot of fun to hide small objects in the box for them to find.

Pegboard and elastic bands / nuts and bolts

Using these objects are a great way for your child to improve and refine their fine-motor development.

Your little one can improve their coordination by stretching elastic bands over a pegboard.

Your child can screw a nut into a bolt by holding the bolt with one hand and using the other hand to turn the nut. This allows your toddler to use both hands together.

It’s helpful to offer your child various sizes of nuts and bolts so they can practice organising them by size.

Sorting

When your child is about 18 months, they will start to become interested in objects by colour, size, and type. Provide your child with a group of objects and place them in a large bowl or container for them to sort into smaller bowls.

Examples of good sorting objects include:

Different-sized and coloured buttons.

Various kinds of stones and shells.

Assorted leaves.

Puzzles

Puzzles are another great activity to help your child to refine their fine motor skills. By the time your child is around 18 months, they can begin to explore fitting shapes into a puzzle base.

A young toddler can start by putting a simple puzzle together, using between 3 – 5 puzzle pieces. It may help to model putting the pieces in the puzzle and taking them out, so your child can then repeat this process.

From 18 months your toddler can then move on to puzzles with 9 or so pieces.

Your older toddler is then ready to explore traditional jigsaw puzzles where each puzzle piece is the same size. The more pieces the puzzle has, the more difficult it will be.

What hand-eye coordination activities can my toddler do?

Help your toddler develop their coordination and motor skills with these activities.