Fine motor skill
Fine motor skill (or dexterity) is the coordination of small muscles in movement with the eyes, hands and fingers. The complex levels of manual dexterity that humans exhibit can be related to the nervous system. Fine motor skills aid in the growth of intelligence and develop continuously throughout the stages of human development.
"Dexterity" redirects here. For other uses, see Dexterity (disambiguation).Common problems[edit]
Fine motor skills can become impaired due to injury, illness, stroke, congenital deformities, cerebral palsy, or developmental disabilities. Problems with the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, muscles, or joints can also have an effect on fine motor skills, and can decrease control. If an infant or child up to age five is not developing their fine motor skills, they will show signs of difficulty controlling their hands, fingers, and face. In young children, delays in learning sitting or walking is an early sign that there will be issues with fine motor skills, and may also show signs of difficulty with tasks such as cutting with scissors, drawing lines, or folding clothes. If a child has difficulty with these, they might have poor hand–eye coordination and could need therapy to improve their skills.
Fine motor skills can be assessed with standardized and non-standardized tests in children and adults. Fine-motor assessments can include force matching tasks. Humans exhibit a high degree of accuracy in force matching tasks where an individual is instructed to match a reference force applied to a finger with the same or different finger.[10] Humans show high accuracy during grip force matching tasks.[11] These aspects of manual dexterity are apparent in the ability of humans to effectively use tools, and perform hard manipulation tasks such as handling unstable objects.[12] Another assessment is called The Peabody Developmental Scales (PDMS).[13] PDMS is a test for children 0–7 that examines the child's ability to grasp a variety of objects, the development of hand–eye coordination, and the child's overall finger dexterity.[13]
Similar to PDMS, visual–motor integration assessment, VMI-R, is an assessment that examines the visual motor integration system which demonstrates and points out possible learning disabilities that are often related to delays in visual perception and fine-motor skills such as poor hand–eye coordination.[14] Because additionally advancements in mathematics and language skills are directly correlated to the development of the fine motor system, it is essential that children acquire the fine motor skills that are needed to interact with the environment at an early stage.[15] Examples of tests include: