Middle school students are truly exceptional individuals. In fact, they fall into the category of the most complex and intriguing students through no fault of their own. The days of elementary school, where they were guided and often led step by step, have transitioned into the middle school phase. Here, expectations have risen, requiring them to embrace responsibility and take ownership of their actions. This period presents an entirely new landscape for these young individuals. Beyond the academic pressures and self-discovery, they grapple with internal changes – physical and hormonal – making the middle school journey a formidable one. It’s this very reality that drives me to approach my students with empathy and consideration. In my occupational therapy sessions, I strive to integrate activities that are both stimulating and aligned with their interests, recognizing the unique challenges they navigate.
Examples of visual motor Activities include mazes, word searches, drawing, and writing. Visual motor activities are tasks that help train the brain to coordinate the information it receives from the eyes with a motor response, specifically from the arm and the hand.
Signs of Visual Motor Integration Deficits
Difficulties or deficits in visual-motor integration refer to the body’s struggle in accurately translating visual cues into corresponding motor responses. To learn more about addressing visual motor deficits, please click HERE. These challenges can significantly impact various aspects of your middle schooler’s life, extending to activities of daily living (ADLs) like dressing themselves, as well as more complex tasks like note-taking during classes.
To illustrate, let’s delve into the scenario of note-taking during classes. One of the biggest differences students face in middle school is that for every subject there is a different teacher, which means that the requirements may vary from one class to another. This difference in requirements can pose considerable challenges. For students dealing with visual-motor integration deficits, the situation becomes even more complicated. They not only have to navigate the transitions between classrooms, but they might also encounter differences in copying demands between subjects – such as copying more content in one class compared to another, or performing far-sighted copying from the board versus near-sighted copying from a book. Clearly, the demands placed on a compromised system can rapidly escalate, contributing to heightened stress and anxiety for the student.
As previously noted, visual motor deficits might manifest when a child encounters challenges like struggling to zip up a jacket, facing difficulty with note-taking during classes, handwriting is difficult to understand, the child seems to know the material but does poorly in test and the examples continue.
“Visual motor activities are tasks that help train the brain to coordinate the information it receives from the eyes with a motor response specifically from the arm and the hand. “
What are The Types of Visual Motor Activities
For the purpose of this post, we will divide activities that rely on visual motor skills into two types, gross motor and fine motor. Gross motor activities that rely on visual motor skills include playing sports like baseball, basketball, soccer, or any physical activity where the larger muscle groups are required to respond accurately and well-timely to visual cues like catching, throwing, or kicking a ball.
Conversely, fine motor activities that draw upon visual motor skills encompass tasks such as zipping up a jacket, tying shoelaces, engaging in drawing, coloring, and handwriting. These activities require the muscles of the arm and hand to accurately respond to visual input. If you’re interested in exploring enjoyable fine motor activities further, you can find more information HERE.
What are Examples of Visual Motor Activities for Middle Schoolers
Within this post, our attention will be directed towards seven distinct visual motor activities. These activities are specifically selected to assist middle school students in enhancing their visual motor integration abilities.
- Drawing
Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression in the visual arts. It is a visual representation of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional form into a two-dimensional plane. Although there are many different styles of drawing, I particularly enjoy directed drawing or step by step drawing. Middle schoolers enjoy this activity because it is interesting, engaging and since the drawing paper is divided into four quadrants, it enhances their sense of accomplishment, making it an enjoyable and fulfilling activity.
Indeed, I often provide a paper that’s divided into four quadrants. This approach grants students a clearer understanding of how each aspect of the drawing corresponds to the paper’s spatial layout. Following occupational therapy principles, we’re essentially deconstructing the activity into more manageable components, which lends itself to gradual and successful completion, allowing them to tackle one section at a time.
Typically, I initiate a trace-over-picture activity by introducing tracing paper alongside one of the options chosen by the student. The student places the tracing paper atop the image and proceeds to trace. This activity’s level of difficulty depends on the student’s visual motor proficiency level. It is a straight forward activity for some, while it is a challenge for some others. This is particularly true since maintaining the stability of the tracing paper without shifting, demands a blend of visual perceptual skills, bilateral hand coordination, and bilateral hand strength.
A variation of this exercise involves a side-by-side drawing activity, requiring the student to recreate a given image. Diverging from the tracing technique, there are no guiding lines to follow. Instead, the four quadrants on the paper serve as reference points for replicating the image. Upon completion, students experience a genuine sense of achievement while simultaneously honing their visual motor skills, visual perceptual abilities, fine motor proficiency, eye-hand coordination, bilateral hand strength, and attention.
- Handwriting
Handwriting tends to rank among the most apprehensive tasks for many of my students. A notable reason for their aversion is the perception of slowness associated with writing activities. So, I have to make it as appealing to them as possible by incorporating a topic of their choosing. And if incorporating a topic of their interest is not an option, at the least, I strive to introduce rewards at the session’s conclusion. I frequently initiate the OT session on the white board using markers of different colors working on pre-writing activities. I draw two horizontal lines on the board and then draw the pre-writing strokes I want students to replicate.
Following this, I proceed to draw two more lines for the student. Their task entails replicating the pre-writing stroke that I’ve just demonstrated directly above their own attempt. Creating an additional set of four lines (with top and bottom guides), I guide the student to repeat the process four times. Upon successful completion of this task, we transition to the actual writing activity. Depending on the student’s writing proficiency, I might utilize fundations paper and a highlighter technique, wherein I write letters with a highlighter for them to trace over.
Another technique I employ involves the use of graphing paper, starting with larger squares and gradually reducing the size as the student progresses in their visual motor skills. I’ve observed that these boxes serve as valuable aids, aiding students in grasping concepts related to letter sizes, shapes, and spatial relationships. Handwriting serves as a remarkable tool for enhancing effective communication, along with promoting the development of spatial relations, hand strength, visual motor, fine motor, and visual perceptual skills .
Engaging in word search puzzles proves highly effective in bolstering visual motor skills, as they require children not only to identify words through visual discrimination but also to encircle or highlight them upon discovery. What makes this activity particularly enjoyable for my students is that they frequently stumble upon extra words beyond the original list. If the words are note worthy, they are considered bonus words in which case their path to a reward is expedited. And did I mention that I pride myself on being a quite generous OT!
My approach is to begin the activity by grading it according to the student’s visual motor proficiency level. I begin with a straightforward word search puzzle featuring larger letters and ample spacing, gradually progressing to more intricate ones with smaller lettering and reduced spacing. Engaging in these puzzles requires students to not only challenge their visual motor skills but also hone visual tracking and perceptual abilities.
Crossword puzzles might be a less familiar territory for many middle schoolers compared to their experience with word search puzzles. However, the benefits of crossword puzzles in cultivating robust visual motor skills are noteworthy. Just like every other activity, I tailor crossword puzzles to match the student’s level of visual motor proficiency. This means I vary the complexity of the task – ranging from simpler crosswords with larger boxes and fewer words to more intricate ones featuring smaller boxes and a broader range of word choices. In cases where spelling proves challenging or students are unfamiliar with certain words, I make it a point to provide assistance. Beyond enhancing vocabulary and fine motor skills, crossword puzzles also contribute to honing problem-solving abilities.
This particular activity holds a special place in my repertoire for fostering visual motor skills, and it stands as one of the least intimidating activities for my students. In certain cases, a maze activity even serves as an added incentive for completing a handwriting task. Similar to how I approach word search puzzles, I ensure the maze activity is well-matched to the student’s visual motor proficiency level. This entails offering a simpler maze option, typically smaller in scale, featuring uncomplicated patterns, and ample spacing between lines or a more intricate one with narrower spaces, multiple lines, and notably larger dimensions.
When it comes to navigating mazes, I establish two guiding principles for my students. Firstly, I encourage them to allow the eyes to lead the hand, allowing it to mirror the pace of their eyes, although this often proves more challenging than it sounds. Secondly, they are encouraged to keep the line that they are drawing from coming in contact with any of the lines that delineate the path, striving to avoid any contact with them. As previously mentioned, this activity is an excellent tool for enhancing a range of skills, including visual motor, visual perceptual, visual tracking, and fine motor skills.
Origami, the intricate Japanese art of paper folding, presents an incredible opportunity for middle schoolers to build their visual motor skills. Not only for the beauty of the finished creation, which they appreciate, but because of the depth and intricacy of the folding patterns. This is one activity during which I often have to provide hand over hand assistance.
My typical starting point involves a straightforward pattern, often beginning with something like a heart. Hearts can be crafted at any time throughout the year; I often prefer making them with my students for occasions such as Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. For holiday seasons, I find 3-D snowflakes particularly engaging, but as I’ve previously mentioned, these projects are versatile and can be pursued at any time. Engaging in origami paper activities serves as a remarkable method for cultivating visual motor skills. The student’s ability to visually track the folding process and replicate it is pivotal. Beyond that, this activity also contributes to sharpening focus, sustaining attention, enhancing visual perceptual skills, refining fine motor skills, and bolstering bilateral hand strength.
The classic game Dots and Boxes has been around for quite some time. Originating in the 19th century, it has captured the engagement of millions across the globe. Though seemingly simple, the game holds remarkable potential for refining visual motor skills. Its structure revolves around a dotted grid, which can be purchased as a booklet or crafted individually by marking dots on a clean sheet of paper. At times, I involve my students in the process of plotting the dots, thus fostering their visual perceptual skills. The challenge lies in ensuring the dots are evenly spaced from one another, forming perfect squares when four are connected.
Once the grid is set, the game unfolds. I often choose to reserve this activity as a rewarding conclusion to the OT session. The rules are straightforward: players take turns drawing lines to connect pairs of dots, with connections allowed only horizontally or vertically—no diagonals. Winning is a matter of completing a square by drawing its fourth side, which awards the player the square and an additional turn. If the player keeps claiming adjacent squares, they’ll eventually secure the title of winner by gathering the most squares. For those seeking a tutorial on how to play the game, please find it HERE. And how does this help with visual motor skills? simply by the continuous and repetitive process of connecting dots.
To sum up, the middle school phase is a pivotal time in a student’s journey, characterized by enthusiasm for a future ripe with potential and boundless opportunities. Yet, it’s also a period marked by a mixture of apprehension and anxious contemplation, stemming from the shift away from familiar routines of grade school and the uncertainties brought by heightened expectations in middle school. This sentiment holds particularly true for individuals grappling with visual motor deficits, as they navigate the complexities of middle school both in tangible and metaphorical senses, encountering heightened challenges along the way.
Having students work on visual motor activities help them to practice the skills necessary to improve their activities of daily living (ADLs) and their instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). This, in turn, translates into advancements in academic performance, a heightened sense of achievement, bolstered self-esteem, and an elevated overall quality of life. The seven visual motor activities provided in the post, not only will challenge middle schoolers visual motor skills, but will help them build their visual perceptual skills, fine motor skills, spatial relations, and bilateral hand strength. I hope you find this post helpful and informative.
“Always remember, empowering our children goes a long way in helping them become independent and build their self-esteem.”