What are motor skills?
Motor skills are movements & actions of the bone structures typically they are categorized in two groups. They are:
- Fine motor skills.
- Gross motor skills.
Fine Motor Skills
- They are involved in smaller movements that occur in the wrists, hands, fingers, feet & toes.
- They involve smaller actions such as picking up objects between the thumb and finger.
- Writing carefully & even blinking. These 2 motor skills work together to provide coordination.
Gross Motor Skills
- They are involved in movements& coordination of the arms, legs & other large body parts.
- They involve actions such as running, crawling& swimming.
Common Problems.
The 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 & 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 in controlling coordinated body movements with the hands, fingers & face. In young children, the delay in the ability to sit up on learn to walk can be an early sign that there will be with fine motor skills. Children may also show signs of difficulty with tasks example, cutting with scissors, drawing lines, folding cloths, holding a pencil & writing & zipping a zipper. These are task that fine motor skills & if a child has difficulty with these they might have poor hand eye coordination & could need therapy to improve their skills.
