Welcome!Fine motor skills such as writing, coloring, zipping up a coat are small movements that require hand-eye coordination and dexterity (Woolfolk, 2014). These skills are important in many daily tasks such as feeding one's self, putting clothes on and taking them off, brushing teeth, opening doors, as well as many other activities.
Without mastering fine motors skills, a child cannot grow into an independent adult. While fine motor skills are learned and honed throughout life, you should really see remarkable improvement in the fine motor skills and control of children in pre-school and elementary school (Batema, 2014). The Science of Fine MotorFine motor development involves coordination and dexterity. Specifically, manual dexterity, or "the ability to make coordinated hand and finger movements to grasp and manipulate objects" ("Manual Dexterity," 2014) is important for fine motor movement. This development of the nervous system is important to preschool children because they are moving from gross motor (or big muscle) to fine motor (or small muscle) movements, and the children need to use their hands in many different, smaller movements. Hand-eye coordination is also necessary for children under five years old ("Manual Dexterity," 2014).
Hand-eye coordination is "the ability of the vision system to coordinate the information received through the eyes to control, guide, and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a given task, such as handwriting or catching a ball" ("Hand-Eye Coordination," 2014). What this means in terms of fine motor development for children under five years old is that children should naturally develop their preferred dominant hand (right- or left-handed), and be able to develop handwriting skills ("Hand-Eye Coordination," 2014). On This SiteOn this site, we are primarily addressing children that are in the pre-school years, mainly ages three to five years old.
A child under the age of five that is consistently struggling with fine motor skills may have a developmental disability. Developmental disabilities are characterized by having a hard time with body coordination, especially involving the face, hands and fingers ("Fine Motor Skills," 2014). If you are concerned about your child's fine motor skill development, your child may just be a late bloomer who needs a little help from you to catch up. Please check out the different pages of this site to learn more about where your child should be developmentally, and to explore new activities you can do at home to help. Sources:
Batema, C. (2014, January 1). Importance of Motors Skills in Child Development. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/importance- motors-skills-child-development-1833.html Fine Motor Skills. (2014, January 1). Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www.healthofchildren.com/E-F/Fine-Motor-Skills.html#b Hand-Eye Coordination. (2014, January 1). Retrieved June 17, 2014, from http://www.healthofchildren.com/G-H/Hand-Eye-Coordination.html#b Manual Dexterity. (2014, January 1). Retrieved June 17, 2014, from http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/184169.html Woolfolk, A. (2014). The Self, Social, and Moral Development. Educational Psychology (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. |