How to Enhance Baby’s Hand Eye Coordination and Upper Extremity Development?

Ever have your hair pulled by a baby? Or maybe they got their death grip around your necklace? They hook their little fingers around whatever they can find and squeeze for dear life; their small hands are deceivingly strong from a very young age.

Newborns and infants rely heavily on their upper extremities (ie. hands and arms) as well as their eyes to explore the physical world around them. It makes sense because at this point they aren’t moving and grooving … yet.

As they grow, babies' muscles get even stronger, their grasp patterns mature, their hand-eye coordination improves, and they are able to do much more than pull your hair out of their parent's heads with their arms and hands!

Our hands are the tools we use for most everyday tasks. As adults, we rely on our hands to communicate, to take care of ourselves, to drive, and to work.

For babies, hand and arm strength helps them feed themselves, move around (ie. tummy time and crawling), and eventually communicate (ie. pointing, grabbing, signing).

Hand and arm strength is great, but when vision is added, our ability to intentionally use our arms is enhanced. Thus, the importance of hand-eye coordination. 

Think about the smallest of tasks, let’s say pouring a cup of coffee or tea. If your hands and eyes are not working together effectively to pick up that pot and pour that caffeine into a cup, the result can be frustrating.

Hand-eye coordination is a fancy word for the ability to use both your hands and your sight at the same time to do something. For babies, that means reaching and grasping for a toy, bringing a teether to the mouth, or eating a bowl of cereal.

Ever wonder how you’re able to pick up the smallest of items? Whether it's a coin that fell on the floor or a piece of styrofoam from unboxing a package, your hands can do the smallest of tasks with insane accuracy. That’s because you (as adults) have refined grasp patterns.

When babies begin using their hands, they also begin to develop different grasp patterns that progress from very large hand movements to small ones. I love this article on grasp patterns, written by an occupational therapist, that explains hand grasp patterns in more detail.

Around 1 month old, babies begin to move their arms at the sight of something they want. Whether that be a favorite toy, their mama, or their source of food, if they can see it and want it, they will move.

And how sweet is the feeling when your baby holds onto your finger for the first time!

Around 2 months old, babies begin to start opening their hands briefly and reflexively grasping onto things. As their vision becomes stronger, this is the time when babies “find their hands” and you may notice your baby looking at their hands, inspecting them as if they are brand new body parts! This is the beginning of hand-eye coordination skills.

4 months old is just the cutest time ever, as this is the time where babies start to use their arms to swat at things and really start interacting with their environment. They may start to play with a rattle, bring their hands together near their chest, and grasp at toys/people actively and with intent. Their little personalities really start to shine through during this time!

By 6 months old, we are entering play mode. Babies will play with their hands and fingers, reach and grasp things they want, and hold small objects, such as pacifiers, in their hands for quite some time.

Banging two objects together, lifting their arms up to tell you they want to be picked up, moving toys from one hand to another, and raking small food pieces are all skills we want to see in 9 month old babies.

And then, by 12 months, it’s game on! Babies are actively playing with toys, throwing toys/objects any chance they get, and are able to put things in and take things out of containers (ie. shape sorters, bowls of food). 

Their hands and arms work together with their eyes to make things happen, and it’s the cutest thing to watch.

Place your infant lying on their back next to a sliding glass door or dishwasher and place the mini mat vertically above. Attach colorful toy bungees and colorful toys to capture their attention.

Every so often swing the bungee to make the toy move, and watch as babies eyes and head start to move to find the toy. This is a great way to start working on hand-eye coordination from a very young age.

Give your baby toys that are different shapes, sizes, and textures to help strengthen their hands and develop different grasp patterns. You can attach these toys to the mat and place them on their high chair.

If your baby isn’t ready for the high chair, you can put him in a bouncer or sling chair and place the Busy Baby Mat on a vertical surface in your house.

Wait and see. If you have a toy, such as a push to pop toy, and your baby is not using the toy in the “intended way”, just wait and see. Instead of stopping their exploration, observe what your child is doing.

Watch and wait to see if they figure it out, and step in if, and when, they become frustrated to model how to use the toy. Sometimes the skills that can be gained from exploring toys in “unintended ways” will give the same results if not better than the intent of the toy in the first place.

Babies grow so quickly from the newborn stage to their first birthday. Sometimes it feels like every week they are gaining a new skill set. And sometimes it feels like they “should be” doing more.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: every child develops at their own rate and they will all get there in their own time.

I hope this blog has provided you with information about the progression of upper extremity development and hand eye coordination skills as well as provided you with some tools to help your baby achieve these milestones.