Fine-Motor Skills

Fine-Motor Coordination

Fine-motor coordination involves the ability to control the small muscles of the body and is usually defined as the ability to coordinate the action of the eyes and hands together in performing precise manipulative movements (eye-hand coordination). The early forerunners of fine-motor control appear to be the reflex grasp and avoidance reactions that become integrated and refined with increasing age and experience.

Most manipulative activities require the use of the two hands working together to perform the task. These are referred to as bi-manual activities. Single-handed manipulative tasks are referred to as uni-manual activities; for example, opening a door. The third type of manipulative activities are graphic activities which include drawing and handwriting. In general, children show the most improvement in simple fine-motor control behaviors from 4 to 6 years, whereas more complex control behaviors tend to improve gradually from 5 to 12 years. Isolated finger, hand, wrist, and foot movements tend to improve significantly from 5 to 8 years.

Vision is known to play an important role in fine-motor control. Continued visual experience is necessary for feedback and refinement of early guided-hand responses.

Kinesthetic input from receptors in the muscles, joints, tendons, and skin also provide essential information for development and refinement of fine-motor actions.

Why Teach Fine Motor?

Children explore the environment by moving and interacting with it. By manipulating objects and gathering valuable information about the physical characteristics, this eventually provides perceptual information necessary to make future judgments without the need for physical contact. Through a matching of perceptual and motor information, a child can interpret the characteristics of the environment more efficiently.

Young children at school spend approximately 60%-70% of their time completing fine-motor work or activities. Approximately 12% of children experience difficulties in this area.

Proficiency in fine-motor control allows the child to develop skills that will have consequences immediately and in later life.

Social Consequences. You cannot hide the way you move. Simple tasks such as tying laces or handling any utensils or objects can cause frustration and embarrassment. The child who has poor coordination begins to wonder why something that is natural and taken for granted is so difficult to perform.

Vocational Consequences. Because a number of vocations--including dentistry, secretarial work, cabinet making, and many others--have a large fine-motor component, the choices for the individual with fine-motor difficulties begin to diminish.

Academic Consequences. Quick and precise handling of concrete objects in mathematics and science becomes difficult. Precision and speed in handwriting and drawing tasks are minimized, affecting the amount of work being completed. When actions are not automatic, the available working memory and attentional space in the brain is taken up with concentrating on the movement rather than the concept being learned and practiced.

Psychological (Emotional) Consequences. Children with poor coordination often have unsuccessful experiences in physical activities. As a consequence they can develop frustration, a fear of failure, and rejection which in turn can lead to the development of a negative self-concept and avoidance behaviors. This can dramatically affect classroom performance not only in the fine-motor area but in other areas as well. Research tells us that a child's attitude toward learning in a particular area is at least as important as a child's ability in that area.

Observing Fine-Motor Difficulties in Children

Observable Behaviours

Here is a list of observable behaviours of children with fine-motor difficulties.

* Difficulty with writing; poor grasp leading to poor form, fluency, and frequent discomfort when writing.

* Difficulty controlling speed of movements leading to excessive speed and resultant untidy work, or work not being completed due to overly slow movements.

* Difficulty with precision grip and inaccurate release and therefore problems with games that involve placement of pieces; for example, dominoes.

* Difficulty with spatial relations leading to difficulties with design and copying.

* Tearing paper and/or breaking pencils due to force-control difficulties.

* Difficulty with learning to dress and undress.

* Preference for outdoor activities.

* Clumsiness and frustration: spills food; drops objects; breaks objects.

* Frustration towards and/or resistant behavior to manipulative and graphic tasks.

* Excessive muscular tension when performing fine-motor tasks.