Optimal vision development involves many skills, and children begin developing these from the day they are born. These skills can be developed through a wide range of activities that involve the integration of sensory-motor systems, including speech, rhythm, and movement. The following are some basic activities that attempt to accomplish these goals. These are aimed at infants from 1-3 years old.
General
- Whenever possible, talk, sing and play with your child.
- Allow your child time for play and exploration by themselves.
- Avoid the restraints of a playpen, crib and high chair whenever possible. Let your child move around as much as they can.
- Show affection to your child.
- Try to approach your child from different sides at different times. This goes for feeding and playing. It is also beneficial to move the crib to different positions of the room on different days (if possible) so that your child will not always face the light from the same side.
Eye Movement Abilities
- Hold a flashlight or penlight in front of your child and move it from right to left, left to right, up and down, diagonally, and in circles as she tries to follow the light. Talk to her while you do this.
- Shine a flashlight at a wall and move it slowly while your child tries to visually follow the beam.
- When they are older, play flashlight tag by having your child hold a flashlight and try to follow your beam of light with their own.
- Play “airplane” while feeding your child by circling the spoon in the air and making a buzzing sound as it approaches their mouth.
Hand-Eye Coordination
The following toys/activities all help in developing hand-eye coordination:
- Stacking blocks
- Stringing beads
- Tossing and catching balloons
- Closing fists and opening one finger at a time
- Ring toss
- Pull/pull toys
- Taking apart toys
- Peg or nail pounding
- Follow-the-dot games
- Folding and unfolding napkins
- Modeling clay/play dough
- Tossing bean bags into a basket
- Simple puzzles
- Tracing and coloring
- Free painting or finger painting
- Tracing around wooden, plastic or cardboard forms. Use large crayons
- Have your child switch a small object from hand to hand as they put on a shirt or sweater
- Place pegs in a pegboard
- Dot O’s in a newspaper or magazine
General Movement and Balance Skills
- Set up an obstacle course with chairs, tables, and boxes so your child has to crawl under, over and squeeze between narrow obstacles.
- Play “Take 1, 2, or 3 giant steps”. “Take 1, 2, or 3 baby steps”.
- Push a wheelbarrow
- Walk backwards
- Touch toes
- Play running games
- Peek through legs
- Jump from steps or blocks
- Balance on one foot
- Hop on both legs together
- Hop on each leg separately
- Step on cracks
- Jump over cracks
- Roll, throw, and bounce a ball
- Try sit-ups, push-ups, etc.
- Walk on a balance beam
- Balance on a balance board.
- Crawl and creep
- Play hop scotch
Building Body Concepts and Self-Imagery
- Expose your child to the concepts of front-back, up-down, big-small, side-side, and one-two, all in the terms of body parts.
- Using a floor length mirror, have them watch themselves as they moves different body parts on your command.
- Draw an outline of their hand or foot. Have them match it with their own body parts and point to the big toe, little toe, thumb, etc.
- Teach them to touch your head, hair, shoulders, stomach, hand, foot, leg, arm, neck, mouth, ears, eyes, chest, back, fingers, etc. when asked.
- Teach them to touch her own body parts when asked.
- Make imprints of body parts (feet, toes, knees, hands) in a sandbox.
- Play game poems such as:
“Hold both hands up, open them, shut them, open them, shut them, give a little clap.
Open them, shut them, open them, shut them, put them in your lap.”
- Play “Hokey-Pokey”:
“put your left arm in …put your whole self in …put your right hand in…”
- Play “What” games:
What sees ? (eyes) What hears ? (ears)
Communicative Ability
- Trace designs in the air for your child while they try to guess what it is. Have them do the same for you.
- Follow simple directions: stand up, sit up, close the door, open the door, come here, etc.
- Imitate sounds: How do we laugh? (Ha, ha, ha) How do we sneeze? (ah-choo) etc.
- Pantomime:
- Pretend you are a cat stretching, circus acrobat, baseball player, elephant swinging his trunk, a dog begging, a baby crying, horse galloping, flower growing, bouncing a ball, sweeping, mopping, peeling potatoes, driving a car, etc.
- Sing an action song (Row your boat, for example) while your child acts out the song.
Auditory Awareness
- Have your child turn their back to you. Make the following noises and have them identify: crushing paper, whistling, knocking on door, tapping on glass, writing on chalkboard, blowing on harmonica, clapping hands, jumping, etc. As they improves, have them try more difficult sounds.
- Have them identify whether the sounds they heard are high or low, near or far, loud or soft.
- Imitate sounds of animals and have them identify whether it is a bee, dog, cat, bird, horse, pig, duck, etc. Have them imitate these sounds for you.
- Have your child imitate sounds heard on the radio, etc.
- Sing rhythmic songs such as London Bridge, Mulberry Bush, etc.
- Have them clap her hands to a beat.
- Clap a rhythm and have your child echo it back to you.
- Tell stories to your child.
Inter sensory-Motor Discrimination
- Sort and count objects
- Identify coins
- Blow different size soap bubbles
- Take a quick look at an object – tell what it is
- Learn colours – use coloured balls or blocks. In stories, emphasise the color of objects (red wheels, blue dress) while pointing to something that has that color. Have them find the red block, yellow crayon, etc.
- Hide a button in one hand. While both hands are closed, ask your child to guess which hand it is in.
- Play with shadows on a wall
- Make felt puppets for hands and fingers.
- With their eyes closed, place some food or drink in their mouth while they try to guess what it is. Try using smells, too.
- Show your child a variety of different objects, then have them close their eyes and try to distinguish them. Examples: cotton, sandpaper, felt, paste, smooth stone, rough rock, shiny paper, leaf, wood, etc.
- Teach directions and space relations to your child: have her move arms in and out, up and down, walk to and from something, climb under and over something, go left and right.
- Work on understanding the concepts of heavy and light, small and large, tall and short by comparing various objects.
- Have your child learn the names of objects. As a game, ask: Show me the _____. Where is the ____ ? Give me the ____. Put the ____ into the box.
Distance Oriented Games
- Throw a ball into a basket or a large box. Move it farther away as they achieve it.
- Throw a ball at specific targets across the room.
- Bounce a ball between the two of you, trying to hit a target on the floor between you.
- Throw a ball through a hoop, or into a circle drawn on the ground.
- Call your child’s attention to and discuss objects that are at a distance.
- Play “catch” & move further away as your child improves.
- Paste different pictures on a beach-size ball. Have your child roll the ball across room and tell what picture is facing her when the ball stops.