Kristina Faudree - Manchester University



Kristina Faudree

Introduction to Early Childhood Education

4/1/09

Motor Skills on Kindergarten Student Attention

The article “The Effect of Fine Motor Skill Activities on Kindergarten Student Attention” by Roger Stewart, Audrey Rule, and Debra Giordano is a study where teachers tested how much motor skill activities effect the development of attention for kindergartners. The point of this study is to see if teachers do motor skill activities in the classroom, then their students will succeed more. The results they got were varied but also successful from their stand point.

Five different classes were used for this study with them split into groups called the experimental groups and the control groups. All of the classes used regular fine motor activities during class time like writing and coloring but only the experimental groups were given tweezers, tongs and spoons to move small items that would change each week. One example they used was the “Tropical Fish” which included small fish statues, a bowl, spools varying in heights, and tweezers. In this activity the students had to take the fish out of the bowl with the tweezers and put them on the stools and make sure they did not fall off. They then would have to do the reverse and put the fish back in the bowl. By doing this activity, they students were focusing on getting the fish in their rightful spot and not dropping them. It taught the students how to keep their attention to one thing without getting distracted. Each week they changed the activity so there would be something new and exciting for the students to enjoy. Most of the students in this group liked these activities and did not see them as a test because the activities used were relatable to them.

The results from the study were not surprising because after both groups took a pretest before the study and a test after, the experimental group with the fine motor skill activities that focused on attention had better scores than the group that just did regular fine motor skill activities. I believe that the reason why the experimental group had better scores because they learned how to focus on an activity like a test well enough so they are not distracted and can keep their attention on one thing. The other group just learned the basics of what a child should know and nothing more. They did not learn the important lesson of being able to put all of their effort into one activity so although they were bright children, they had difficulty with the tests because it required them to focus on just the test.

The other interesting result from this study was the fact that the girls did better than the guys in the experimental group. The researchers believe this may be the case because the activities done might have been more girl-oriented, but it is still unclear as to why the girls did better. They want to continue to research this and figure out why the boys did not do as well because it is important to see what a child needs help with in order to help them achieve the standard goals. It may be that many boys have a hard time not getting distracted more so than girls so they are not able to focus on one thing for a long amount of time.

This article did a good job of explaining the importance of fine motor skill activities so that teachers will know to do a wide range of them in the classroom. The study proved that fine motor skill activities are essential for a student’s education and teachers need to realize that the more variety of activities they have in the classroom, the better. A child’s education depends on teachers to realize how important motor skills are.

Source

Stewart, R.A., Rule, A.C., & Giordano, D.A. (2007). The Effect of Fine Motor Skill Activities on Kindergarten Student Attention. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from

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