Visual Motor Connections When Tracing, Handwriting and Typing

Trends in Neuroscience and Education published research examining the visual motor connections in the brain when tracing, handwriting and typing in preschool children.  Since handwriting letters has been shown to increase Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal during letter perception in visual and motor brain regions the researchers investigated functional connectivity by analyzing BOLD data obtained from 4 to 6 year-old children after learning symbols through handwriting, tracing, or typing.

The data analysis revealed that functional conditions between:

• visual and parietal regions increased after all training conditions.
• visual and ventral frontal regions increased after handwriting training with letters more than shapes.
• visual and dorsal frontal motor regions increased more after handwriting than typing letters.

The researchers concluded that visual-motor training creates functional connections among visual and motor brain regions that reflect different aspects of the handwriting experience.

Reference:  Vinci-Booher, S., James, T. W., & James, K. H. (2016). Visual-motor functional connectivity in preschool children emerges after handwriting experience. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 5(3), 107-120.

Need handwriting resources?  Check out these titles:

The Handwriting Book

Handwriting Stations

Handwriting Heroes Program

Handwriting Bundle – HWT Style

Need visual motor resources?  Check out these titles:

Visual Motor Exercises

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

Visual Motor Collection – 50% Off!

Need keyboarding resources?  Check out:

Keyboarding Rubrics

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Figure Ground and Spatial Reasoning Activities

These two figure ground and spatial reasoning activities are free from the Crocodiles, Flamingos and Monkeys Visual Perceptual packet.  Can you count how many crocodiles are in the picture?  This figure ground activity can be printed to provide your students with a visual perceptual challenge.  Can you use spatial reasoning and visual motor skills to complete the monkey picture?

DOWNLOAD 2 FREE Figure Ground and Spatial Reasoning Activities.

Crocodiles, Flamingos and Monkeys Visual Perceptual Packet – This digital download includes 22 pages of worksheets to practice visual discrimination, spatial reasoning, figure ground, visual closure, form constancy, visual motor skills and coloring.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

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Ultimate Visual Motor Challenge

Here is a FREE ultimate visual motor challenge with two difficulty levels.  Can you copy the lines and shapes exactly onto the blank grid? The color version is slightly easier than the black and white version.  The colors are easier to distinguish differences but you must match each color to the correct line and shape as well.

Submit your email to subscribe to the newsletter and to get your FREE Ultimate Visual Motor Challenge (4 page PDF document).  You will be redirected to the download page.

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Visual Motor and Discrimination Activity – Hedgehogs

Here is a cute, visual motor and visual discrimination freebie with hedgehogs.  Just print, grab some crayons and start looking for matching hedgehogs.

DOWNLOAD the visual motor and visual discrimination freebie here.

This is from the Visual Discrimination Seek and Find download which includes 8 full color boards with cards and 12 black and white boards to color. Look for objects that are pictured on the tablet screen. Match up the cards or color in the matching picture according to the key. This activity encourages visual discrimination, visual closure and visual motor skills. Kids will love the tablet theme! Just print and play.

 

You can create the boards with cards.  They range in difficulty from easier to more difficult.

Create busy bags to make the activities easy to travel with from school to school.

Find out more information about the Visual Discrimination Seek and Find download.

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Dot to Dot 1-10 and 1-20 Freebies

Connect the Dot activities are great fun for children the only problem is sometimes they can just be way TOO hard!  Here are two free dot to dots from the latest download, Connect the Dots.  There is an owl dot to dot with numbers 1-10 and a pony dot to dot with numbers 1 -20.

Download the two free Connect the Dot puzzles here.

The complete Connect the Dots download includes over 60 black and white, reproducible dot to dot puzzles progressively ranging from easy to more difficult to encourage visual motor, figure ground and visual closure skills. This download includes dot to dots 1-5, 1-10, 1-15, 1-20, 1-25, 1-30, A to Z, a to z and dot to dots in a picture.  GET MORE INFORMATION.

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Handwriting Speed Associated with Manipulation and Visual Perceptual Skills

The British Journal of Occupational Therapy examined 39 typically developing 6-8 year old children to determine whether visual perceptual, visual-motor integration and in-hand manipulation skills were associated with manuscript handwriting speed.  Each participant completed Beery–Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration – 6th edition (DTVMI), the Developmental Test of Visual Perception – 3rd edition (DTVP-3), the Test of In-Hand Manipulation – Revised (TIHM-R), and the Handwriting Speed Test (HST).  Results indicated the following:

• significant correlations were found between visual perception, visual-motor integration, and in-hand manipulation skills and total letters written and total letters per minute.
• the DTVP-3 eye–hand coordination and visual closure subscales and the TIHM-R were significant predictors of total letters written.
• the DTVP-3 copying and visual closure subscales and the TIHM-R were predictive of total letters written per minute.

The researchers concluded that visual perceptual abilities, specifically visual closure skills, plus in-hand manipulation skills appear to be significant predictors of children’s printing speed.

Reference:  Ted Brown and Julia Link. The association between measures of visual perception, visual-motor integration, and in-hand manipulation skills of school-age children and their manuscript handwriting speed. British Journal of Occupational Therapy March 2016 79: 163-171, first published on September 24, 2015 doi:10.1177/0308022615600179

Visual Perceptual and Handwriting Practice Pages are activities to practice letter formation, visual motor, visual discrimination and visual spatial skills. Each letter page includes double line (Handwriting without Tears® style) and dotted line (Zaner-Bloser® style) format plus a visual perceptual activity related to the letter.  Find out more information and download a sample page.

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Firetruck Fine Motor and Visual Motor Game

Download this freebie Firetruck Game to encourage fine motor and visual motor skills.  It is available in color and black and white.  Give each player a board.  Roll one die.  Trace over the number of ladder rungs that you roll.  The first player to trace all the ladder rungs is the winner!  Download the Firetruck Game here.

Watch a turn in action.

Need more visual motor ideas?

Check out Cut, Sequence, Paste and Draw Transportation  to practice: scissor skills, fine motor skills, motor planning and visual motor skills. Download a free truck page.

Visual Motor Exercises includes 25 long mazes and patterns to print, assemble and complete to practice pencil control. Once the pattern/maze is assembled it is 28 inches in length. This length encourages the child to cross midline and to rotate the head (vestibular input) while completing the visual motor exercise. The patterns and mazes vary in difficulty from easy to hard with horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curves and circular patterns. The patterns/mazes are all in black and white. There is a step by step direction sheet with color photos for the children to follow along.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION here and download a freebie page.

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Summer Olympic Games Freebie Activity

The Summer Olympic Games are only a few weeks away!  This Summer Olympic games freebie activity, Find and Color, is a fun way to encourage visual discrimination and visual motor skills with a Summer Olympic theme.  Find the medal winners and color them the correct color.  This visual perceptual puzzle is just one from the new Summer Olympic Games Packet that is filled with sensory motor and visual perceptual activities and games.  There are 40 Summer Olympic sport cards including:

1. archery
2. badminton
3. basketball
4. boxing
5. canoeing
6. diving
7. equestrian dressage
8. equestrian jumping
9. fencing
10. golding
11. gymnastics male
12. gymnastics female
13. handball
14. judo
15. karate
16. mountain biking
17. road cycling
18. sailing
19. shooting
20. swimming
21. synchronized swimming
22. table tennis
23. tennis
24. track cycling
25. trampoline
26. weightlifting
27. wrestling
28. soccer
29. volleyball
30. running
31. high jump
32. javelin
33. long jumping
34. hurdles
35. discus
36. shotput
37. hammer
38. gold medal
39. silver medal
40. bronze medal

Use the posters and cards in the Summer Olympic Games Packet to encourage literacy, physical activity and just play some fun games!  The packet includes 7 game and activity ideas.  Make watching the Summer Olympics even more fun this year with this download.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION about the Summer Olympic Games Packet.

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Simple Candy Cane Craft

After seeing this craft from Highlights, I thought it looked like a wonderful visual and fine motor activity.  I created a template so that you can get started right away.  You can download the template at YourTherapySource or http://www.YourTherapySource.com/videocandycane.  Watch the video below.

Find and Color Christmas Doodles

Find and Color Christmas Doodle is the latest freebie from a new download - Christmas Doodle Find.  This is a fun, no prep activity to practice visual tracking, visual discrimination and visual motor skills.  Find out more information at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/doodlechristmas

Holiday Lights Tracing Freebie

Practice visual discrimination and visual motor skills with this Holiday Lights Tracing freebie from the December Visual Perceptual Puzzles.

December Visual Perceptual Puzzles

By:  Your Therapy Source, Inc

Summary:  Download of 20 visual motor, visual spatial, visual closure and visual perceptual 

challenges with a December theme.  FIND OUT MORE AT http://yourtherapysource.com/vpdecember.html

Visual Motor Skills, Social Skills and Autism

Biological Psychiatry published research comparing resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans from 100 8- to 12-year-old children of which 50 had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results were analyzed and functional connectivity was estimated between visual and motor systems. Brain-behavior relationships were evaluated by regressing functional connectivity measures with social deficit severity, imitation, and gesture performance scores.  The following results were found:

1.  increased intrinsic asynchrony between visual and motor systems in children with ASD 
2.  children with more out-of-sync intrinsic visual-motor activity displayed more severe autistic traits
3.  children with greater intrinsic visual-motor synchrony were better imitators.

The researchers concluded that visual-motor functional connectivity is disrupted in ASD. 

Reference:  Nebel, M et al.  Intrinsic Visual-Motor Synchrony Correlates With Social Deficits in Autism.  Biological Psychiatry.  In Press.  Published online: September 3 2015.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.08.029

V-I-N-G-O Visual Motor Bingo

By:  Your Therapy Source, Inc

Summary:  Download of 5 different bingo games to play from pre-writing skills to letter formation.  FIND OUT MORE AT http://www.yourtherapysource.com/vingo.html

Practice Self Regulation and Visual Motor Skills - Emotion Freebies

Here is a great freebie from the Emotions Packet.  Practice fine motor, visual motor and self regulation skills with these freebies.  Download them here http://yourtherapysource.com/emotionsfreebie

Road Puzzler Freebie for Visual Motor and Visual Spatial Skills

Here is a fun but challenging freebie - the Road Puzzler.  Practice scissor skills, visual motor and visual spatial skills with this printable.  You can download Road Puzzler here http://www.YourTherapySource.com/freeroadpuzzler

Need more visual spatial and visual motor activities?  Check out Find the Animals.

Title of Electronic Book: Find the Animals
By:  Your Therapy Source, Inc
Summary:  This download is a set of 10 activities that challenge visual spatial, visual tracking and visual motor skills.  There are 10 find and color the animal activities or 10 find and draw specific shapes around the animal.
FIND OUT MORE here http://www.yourtherapysource.com/findanimals.html

8 Free Fall Themed Fine, Gross and Visual Motor Activities

Here are 8 free printables for fine motor, gross motor and visual perceptual activities with a Fall theme.

1.  Leaf Animals – Print and create some leaf animals to practice fine motor skills.  Download here  http://www.yourtherapysource.com/fmfallfree.html
2. Pumpkin Patch Fine Motor Game – download here http://www.yourtherapysource.com/freepumpkinpatch.html
3. Handwriting Hunt for Autumn – getting moving and writing with this activity.  Download here http://yourtherapysource.com/hwhuntsfallfree.html
4. Fall Handwriting Practice – Download the Free Fall Handwriting Practice pages –
   double line and dotted line styles – http://www.yourtherapysource.com/freefallhw.html
5. Falling Leaves– practice fine motor, gross motor, balance and coordination skills with this activity.  Download here http://www.yourtherapysource.com/fallingleaves.html
6. Fall Handwriting Words, Lined Paper and Football Visual Motor Task – download here http://www.yourtherapysource.com/files/Fall_free_sample.pdf
7. Pumpkin Multisensory Handwriting Page – download here http://www.yourtherapysource.com/msfallfree.html
8. Raking Maze to practice visual motor, visual spatial and motor planning skills.  Download here http://www.yourtherapysource.com/vpfallfreebie.html

10 Visual Motor Printables - All Freebies!

Here are 10 free visual motor printables – just print, grab a pencil and you are all set!!!

1.  Visual Motor Exercise – http://yourtherapysource.com/vmefree.html

2.  2 Pages from Visual Motor Workbook – http://yourtherapysource.com/files/visual_motor_free_sample.pdf

3.  Follow the Path – http://yourtherapysource.com/followfree.html

4.  Letter and Shape Maze – http://yourtherapysource.com/lsmazefree.html

5.  Connect Puzzle – http://yourtherapysource.com/connectfree.html

6.  Graph Paper Drawing – http://yourtherapysource.com/graphdrawfree.html

7.  Crossing Path Puzzle – http://yourtherapysource.com/crossingpathsfree.html

8.  Frog Grid Drawing – http://yourtherapysource.com/griddrawingfreebie.html

9.  Patterns Freebies – http://yourtherapysource.com/patternsfree.html

10.  Lines, Lines and More Lines Freebie – http://yourtherapysource.com/linesfreebie.html

Visit Your Therapy Source for more visual perceptual activities at http://yourtherapysource.com/visualdownloads.html

Challenge Visual Motor Skills with this Back to School Freebie

Here are a few free pencil challenges with a back to school theme to practice pencil control for vertical, horizontal, diagonal and curved lines.  You can download them here http://yourtherapysource.com/pencilchallengesbacktoschoolfreebie.html

Visual Motor and Visual Closure Activity with Symmetrical Monsters

Check out the latest freebie from Missing Monsters to challenge visual motor, visual closure and visual disscrimination skills.  You can download it here http://yourtherapysource.com/missingmonstersfreebie.html

Patriotic Printables

Here are three FREE printables for July 4th or any patriotic day.

Practice reaction time and visual skills with the Red, White and Blue Game at http://www.yourtherapysource.com/july4free.html

Practice visual discrimination, visual motor and figure ground skills with this July 4th Hunt and Find activity at http://yourtherapysource.com/july4huntfind.html

Practice scissors and lacing skills to make this Flag Mobile at http://yourtherapysource.com/july4free2.html

New Printable - Find and Color Your Name

Here is a simple activity to help children work on visual scanning, visual discrimination, letter identification and coloring skills.  If the child can not color in the lines, you could use dot markers or colored stickers to identify the letters in the child's name.  You can download it at Your Therapy Source here http://yourtherapysource.com/freefindname.html

 The Letter Hunt ebook includes 26 hunt and find puzzles. For each letter of the alphabet you find and circle 13 upper case letters and 13 lower case letters. Use a pencil to circle the letters, small stickers, dot markers and color in the picture when completed. The ebook is in black and white.  Download a sample page with some ideas of how to use the letter hunts at http://yourtherapysource.com/letterhunt.html