Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Hand-eye co-ordination

Outdoor environments can offer good opportunities for children to build and develop hand-eye co-ordination, if the right interventions are made. Julie Mountain considers the best approaches.

While early years settings have made excellent progress in recognising the value of outdoors in supporting children's physical development, some tend to focus on the outdoors as a place for developing gross motor skills and for noisy and boisterous play. However, outdoors has a vital role to play in the advancement of the quieter, more precise physical skills that children will need as they become ready to take on greater responsibility for their own health and hygiene - and, of course, the challenge of school.

It is important that we don't assume that these skills will emerge 'naturally' as children mature. Some degree of 'physical education' is needed, even if we don't often hear that phrase in early years. High-quality interventions by key adults in the setting and at home can consolidate skills and extend opportunities for hand-eye co-ordination.

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