The document discusses motor skills development in children. It covers topics like gross motor skills, fine motor skills, grasp patterns in infants, in-hand manipulation skills, and bimanual skills. It emphasizes that motor skills are acquired through repetition and practice and transferred to other tasks according to motor learning theory. Opportunities for practicing new motor skills are important so that skills progress from conscious to automatic use. Hand skills interventions should be meaningful and engaging for the child.

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MELS 2016 – Hand Function in the Child &
Fundamental Cognitive Development (FCD)
18th Jan 2016 – Malaysia
Speaker: Christine Por

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Motor learning theory emphasizes that skills are acquired using specific
strategies and are refined through a great deal of repetition and the
transfer of skills to other tasks Croce(Croce & DePaepe, 1989).
Opportunities of a new motor skill are extremely important in moving
a skill from the level of needing conscious attention in its use to the level
of spontaneous and automatic use.
Croce, R., & DePaepe, J. (1989). A critique of therapeutic intervention programming with reference to an
alternative approach based on motor learning theory. Physical and Occupational Theraphy in Pediatrics, 9(3),
5-33.

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A child’s interest in an activity-
It is meaningful;
It is significance for the child.
Hand skill intervention cannot be done to a child; it must be done with the
child’s belief that he or she can be successful in accomplishing the
activities presented (Pehoski, 1992).
Pehoski, C. (1992). Central nervous system control of precision movements of the hand. In J. Case-Smith &
C. Pehoski (Eds.), Development of hand skills in the child (pp. 1-11). Rockville, MD: The American
Occupational Therapy Association.

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Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor (physical) skills are those which require whole body
movement and which involve the large (core stabilising) muscles of the
body to perform everyday functions, such as standing, walking,
running, and sitting upright. It also includes eye-hand coordination
skills such as ball skills (throwing, catching, kicking).
Stabilizing Loco motor Manipulating

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Gross Motor Skills

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Gross Motor Skills

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Gross Motor Skills

8. + Gross Motor Skills

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Gross Motor Skills
Hands-eyes-body
(audio & movement)
Hands-eyes-body
movement

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Gross Motor Skills
Hands-eyes-body

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Purposes of using hands
Self-care, Curious & Play

13. + Self-care and hand skill
• Eating
• Dressing
• Bathing
• Toileting

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15. + Fine Motor Skills
• Whole Arm
• Whole Hand
• Pincher
• Pincer
Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/MELS.English
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Whole arm Whole hand Pincher Pincer
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(Michelle Huffman & Fortenberry, 2011)

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Video - MELS - Fine Motor Skills for children

18. + Hand skillsGrasp
-Crude palmar grasp (4-5 months)
-Palmar Grasp (5-6 months)
-Redial Palmar Grasp (6-7 months)
-Raking Grasp (7-8 months)
-Radial Digital Grasp (8-9 months)
-Pincer Grasp (10-12 months)

19. + Hand skills
Release
Automatic release  Purposeful release

20. + Hand skills
Motor skills
In-Hand Manipulation Skills
1. Finger-to-palm translation
2. Palm-to-finger translation
3. Shift: Slight adjustment of the object on or by the fingers pads
4. Simple rotation: Turning or rolling the object 90 degrees or less, with
the fingers acting as a unit
5. Complex rotation: Turning an object over using isolated finger and
thumb movements

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Video - In Hand Manipulation Skills

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Bimanual hand-skills

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The hand has two functions:
Executive and Perceptual organ

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Cognitive processes in Motor Skills
Attention  Perception  Concept formation Memory Learning

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Three stages of learning to acquire a new skill –
•Exploratory activity
•Perceptual learning and feedback acquired from previous
tasks performed. Actions initially tried and ineffective are
discarded.
•Discovery of the optimal solutions & generalizes movement
patterns to other tasks

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Children often find thematic relations between objects to be more
salient(Markman & Hutchinson, 1984).

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1. On the beach
5. Safari
7. Castle
8.A stage performance
6. The garden
3. Museum
4.A night
scene
2. The
kitchen
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M4 – THE FUNFAIR
Story
Have you been to any funfair? What can you see in
the funfair? Yes, there are lots of games. Now, these
two children are going to the funfair but they don’t
know how to play the games. Let’s help them.

31. +A duck (Part 1)
Story
The two children would like to pedal the duck boat in the pond, but
the duck is not nice. Can you see there is no colour on the duck? Let
us now make the duck beautiful and colourful.
Detailed Steps
1. Show students the items : crayons,duck picture and display
stand.
2. Ask students to find the plastic bag and open it.
3. Take out the crayons and duck picture, place them on the table.
4. Open the crayon box, choose one colour and grip the crayon.
5. Show students the correct way of gripping crayon.

32. +A duck (Part 2)
6. Ask students to imitate and show you how they grip the
crayon.
7. Guide them if the gripping is incorrect.
8. When they are ready, colour the duck.
9. While students are colouring, monitor their gripping of
crayons.
10. May repeat the process if students would like to colour the
duck with other colours.
11. When students complete colouring the duck, show students
how to fold the display stand.
12. Ask students to imitate and fold the display stand.
13. Then, insert the picture onto the stand for display.

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35. +Tokens (Part 1)
Story
Now, the children would like to go for the tea cup ride. Have you tried
the ride before? After inserting the tokens, the tea cup will spin. But, the
two children here don’t know how to insert the tokens. So now, we need
to help them insert the tokens.
Detailed Steps
1. Show students the items : box and tokens.
2. Ask students to find the plastic bag and open it.
3. Take out the box and tokens, place them on the table.
4. Ask students to pick up one token from the table.
5. Show students how to translate the token from finger to palm.
6. Ask students to imitate and translate the token from finger to palm.

36. +Tokens (Part 2)
7. Monitor their movements and guide them.
8. Now, show students how to translate the token from palm to finger.
9. Ask students to imitate and translate the token from palm to finger.
10. Monitor their movements and guide them.
11. Ask students to practise the finger-to-palm and palm-to-finger
translations numerous times.
12. After the practice, show students how to fold the box.
13. Ask students to imitate and fold the box.
14. Now, ask students to pick up the token one by one from the table, and
translate the tokens to their palms.
15. One hand stabilises the box, and the other hand translates the token from
palm to finger to insert the token one by one into the box through the
hole.

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38. +A mushroom farm (Part 1)
Story
The children are now going to the mushroom farm. But,
there is no mushroom growing.We need to help them grow the
mushrooms.We help them grow big and small mushrooms with many
beautiful colours.
Detailed Steps
1. Show students the items : box and plastic mushrooms.
2. Ask students to find the plastic bag and open it.
3. Take out the box and mushrooms, place them on the table.
4. Ask students to pick up one big mushroom.
5. Show students complex rotation : turning the plastic mushroom over
using isolated finger and thumb movements.
6. Ask students to imitate and practise complex rotation : turning the
plastic mushroom over using isolated finger and thumb movements.

39. +A mushroom farm (Part 2)
7. Place the big mushroom into the palm,
and translate it to fingers.
8. Repeat Step 6 and Step 7 with small mushroom.
9. Repeat Step 6, Step 7 and Step 8 with both hands.
10. After the practice, fold the box.
11. One hand stabilises the box and the other hand
picks up the mushroom and inserts it into the
small hole of the box.
12. Repeat Step 11 for other mushrooms.
13. May start from big mushrooms to small mushrooms.

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41. +A carousel (Part 1)
Story
The two children are going for the carousel ride. Do you know what is carousel?
There are horses and other animals rotating in circle for children to ride on. Do
you like to play carousel? But, can you see the spots on the horse are missing.
The horse is sad. Now, we need to help the horse putting back the spots to make
it beautiful.
Detailed Steps
1. Show students the items : plasticine and carousel
picture.
2. Ask students to find the plastic bag and open it.
3. Take out the plasticine and the picture, place them on the table.
4. Tear the plastic bag, take out the plasticine.
5. Show students complex rotation : kneading the plasticine using isolated
finger and thumb movements.

42. +A carousel (Part 2)
6. Ask students to imitate and practise complex rotation : kneading the
plasticine using isolated finger and thumb movements.
7. Repeat Step 6 with another hand and then both hands.
8. After the practice, one hand holds the plasticine and the other hand
pull out small piece of plasticine and knead it into a ball using
isolated finger and thumb movements.
9. Press and stick the plasticine on the spot of the horse body.
10. Repeat Step 8 and Step 9 till completing
all the spots.

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Group Activity
Create
 Story
 Detailed Steps

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Theme : Night Scene

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References:
Chien, C.-W., Brown, T., & McDonald, R. (2009). A framework of children's hand skills for
assessment and intervention. Child: care, health and development, 35(6), 873-884.
doi:10.1111/j.1365.2214.2009.01002.x
Croce, R., & DePaepe, J. (1989). A critique of therapeutic intervention programming with reference
to an alternative approach based on motor learning theory. Physical and Occupational Theraphy in
Pediatrics, 9(3), 5-33.
Lederman SJ, Klatzky RL (1987). Hand movements: a window into haptic recognition. Cognitive
Psychology, 19: 342-368
Pehoski, C. (1992). Central nervous system control of precision movements of the hand. In J.
Case-Smith & C. Pehoski (Eds.), Development of hand skills in the child (pp. 1-11). Rockville, MD:
The American Occupational Therapy Association.
Markman, Ellen. M., & Hutchinson, J.E. (1984). Children's Sensitivity to Constraints on Word
Meaning:Taxonomic versus Thematic Relations. Cognitive Psychology, 16(1984), 1-27.
Pehoski, C. (1992). Central nervous system control of precision movements of the hand. In J.
Case-Smith & C. Pehoski (Eds.), Development of hand skills in the child (pp. 1-11). Rockville, MD:
The American Occupational Therapy Association.

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END
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