Moving toys helps with reading and writing – really?

Did you know that watching a moving toy helps your toddler develop the essential skills needed to read and write? It's true! In order to read and write, your toddler’s eyes must be able to follow the flow of written text or watch a pen move. This is called visual tracking and it’s a skill they’ll use in everyday life. 

Visual tracking – what is it? 

Your toddler’s skills in visual tracking started at birth. Visual tracking is the ability to control eye movements, which enables us to follow a moving object and switch our focus between objects. 

Instead of moving the head, visual tracking involves moving the eyes to follow a moving object.  

The eyes follow objects in all different ways, so they might follow an aeroplane rising into the sky, a car travelling along a road, or focus on a sparkler being twirled in a circle. 

This is important for your toddler when they begin to learn to read and write, and also for other activities, like playing and most sports. 

Visual tracking and writing 

It won’t be long before your toddler starts to experiment with drawing and painting, and soon they will start to be aware of the marks their crayons are making.  

Their eyes will follow the movement of their hand and eventually they will be able to direct where their crayon goes.  

Your toddler will progress from drawing and painting to writing, and their eyes will continue to follow the flow of the pen as it moves over the paper to create shapes, letters, numbers and sentences. 

Visual tracking and reading 

When your toddler watches birds flying through the sky or plays on a swing, they are tracking moving objects with their eyes. 

This is so important for reading as your toddler’s eyes will need to move across the written words. In time, they will learn where one word ends and the next starts and they will be able to follow text from the top of the page, down to the bottom.