Fine motor skills: An emergent competence in preschool age

Recent research has shown that low fine motor competence is related to difficulties in academic performance, problems in school adaptation and social behaviour during transition from preschool to primary school. It is clear that prevention or reduction of these negative effects is dependent on early identification of motor impairment and timely intervention. Therefore, the purposes of this study were: i) to assess fine motor competence of preschool children; ii) to explore the influence of gender on fine motor competence; and iii) to identify fine motor tasks that children can successfully achieve at the end of pre-school education. A total of 366 children (195 girls and 171 boys) aged 36 to 71 months (53.0 +/- 9.6) were assessed by fine motor subscale of PDMS-2. The majority of the children reached expected performance in grasping and visual-motor integration skills at all age-groups. Significant differences were found between boys' and girls' performance. Girls presented higher scores than boys in Grasping and Visual-motor integration at 3 and 4 years of age, particularly in tasks such as grasping marker, unbuttoning button, buttoning button, colouring between lines and cutting. At the age of five, children still show difficulties in folding paper. The results of this study clearly reinforce the assumption that fine motor skills are an emergent competence in preschool age that depends on children's maturation but also on opportunities for stimulation which are provided in preschool and family environments.