Fine motor skills in young children

The concept of occupational performance is at the heart of the profession of occupational therapy. Occupational performance has been described as the dynamic interaction between the elements of the person, the context, and the occupation. Congruence or fit between the three elements produces optimal occupational performance. Occupational therapists working with children analyze the congruence among the three elements of person, context, and occupation, and intervene to facilitate optimal occupational performance.;Fine motor skills enable children to participate in valued occupations, especially in the school setting. In order to fully help young children develop the specific skills needed to participate in school, practitioners need to understand the desired fine motor classroom occupations of preschool and kindergarten contexts. Three studies were designed to examine the preschool and kindergarten contexts and fine motor classroom occupations of young children.;The first study focuses on the fine motor demands in the kindergarten context. Observations of 20 children in 10 kindergarten classrooms demonstrate that kindergartners spend half of their school day engaged in fine motor activities. Forty-two percent of that fine motor time involves paper and pencil activities.;The second study describes and compares the fine motor demands 10 in Head Start preschool classrooms and 10 kindergarten classrooms. There is similarity between total time spent in fine motor activities of children in kindergarten and Head Start; however, the percent of paper and pencil activity time the children engage in substantially increases in kindergarten.;The third study examines the play choices made during the occupation of free play and whether the amount of time 4-year-old children participate in fine motor play activities varies in relationship to fine motor skill level. Fifteen pairs of children with differing fine motor skills were observed during free play. No differences in the time spent in categorized fine motor challenge activities were found between children with good and poor fine motor skills.;In summary, the findings from these studies offer practitioners a better understanding of the fine motor demands on children in Head Start and kindergarten contexts. Future research can examine strategies to enhance the fit among the three elements of occupational performance.