Why Is My Child So Clumsy? The Connection Between Vision and Movement

Have you noticed that your child struggles to catch a ball? Do they bump into furniture, or trip over their own feet? Children develop at different rates and many body systems are involved in directing movement. Vision is one of the key contributors to development in children. Without solid visual skills, children will struggle to develop gross motor and fine motor skills. This will cause difficulty with coordination and movement.
 

How Does Vision Affect Coordination?

Vision involves much more than seeing clearly. Your child’s eyes and brain work together to understand the surrounding environment, judge distances, track moving objects, and guide body movements.

If you doubt that vision is important in movement, just try walking across the room with your eyes closed. How did you do? Did you know exactly where you were at each moment? Did you bump into furniture? Now, try writing with your eyes closed. Did you have trouble staying on the lines? When vision is not able to guide the hand, it is much harder to form letters correctly.

Visual skills include eye movements, focusing, and coordinating both eyes. These abilities help children perform everyday tasks, from tracking a moving ball to copying information from a classroom board. Depth perception also plays an important role in judging spatial relationships.

When certain visual skills are inefficient, motor skills develop more slowly and cause great difficulty.

5 Signs Your Child May Have a Vision Problem Watch for these common challenges:

• Difficulty catching or hitting a ball:

• Frequently bumping into things

• Poor handwriting

• Difficulty copying from the board

• Poor hand-eye coordination
   

Motor development, attention, and other factors also contribute to these skills. However, since vision is an integral part of these tasks, it is one of the first things that should be checked.

Can Vision Therapy Help With Coordination?

Vision therapy is an individualized program designed to improve specific visual skills. If poor vision skills contribute to your child’s difficulties, then improving those skills through vision therapy will help them to overcome their challenges. Vision may not be the only issue that needs to be addressed. If your child needs help from other services, such as occupational therapy, solving the vision problems will help them to progress more quickly through other treatment programs.
 

Help Your Child Build Confidence

When everyday activities feel difficult, children often become frustrated or avoid participating. Understanding what is contributing to these struggles is an important first step toward finding appropriate support.

At Small Wonder Eyecare we offer functional vision evaluations to assess visual skills beyond simply reading an eye chart.

Wondering whether vision is affecting your child’s coordination? Contact Small Wonder Eyecare to schedule a functional vision evaluation.