[Source: Your Therapy Source]

Ingrid King, OT, has written research on a collaborative fine motor program for 5 year old children in New Zealand.  A two phased mixed method design was utilized with 19 students in a 5 year old classroom (none of the students were receiving occupational therapy nor had a diagnosis).  To measure changes in fine motor skills a group pre- and post-test was performed.  A five year follow up study was completed to determine the teacher’s perceptions.  The intervention consisted of a fine motor program for the entire class led by the occupational therapist (which were then repeated by the teaching staff) one time per week for 8 weeks.  Following the first 8 weeks, an additional fine motor program was completed for 12 weeks for only 6 of the students.
The results indicated the following:

• a significant difference was found in the groups fine motor performance following the the collaborative teaching training
• the teacher continued to use the knowledge and activities after the training was complete.

You can read the entire study here http://docs.com/ZH6H.  Find out more about the fine motor program used for the study at www.myfantasticfingers.com
Reference:  King, I. Then and Now: Addressing Young Students’ Fine Motor Needs Through a Collaborative Modelling Teacher Training Intervention.  Copyright 2014. Ingrid C. King www.myfantasticfingers.com
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