Activities that Practice Fine Motor Skills May Improve Attention for Female Students

Another study examined whether movement-based activities in the classroom can improve learning-related skills, particularly attention. This study took a different approach from the others that I have examined in this blog by focusing on the effect of movements involving fine motor skills. The study set out to test the Montessori theory that movement activities for children are effective in capturing their complete attention and that practicing such activities, especially fine-motor activities, can improve their overall attention. Interestingly, the study found an improvement in attention for female participants in the experimental group but no significant improvement for males.

A total of 68 kindergarten children from five different classrooms participated in the study, which took place in a suburban area in one of the Rocky Mountain States. All students received the regular kindergarten curriculum, which already included some typical practice of fine motor skills, such as cutting and drawing. There was no change for the thirty two students in the control group. The 36 students in the experimental group received addition movement activities that required fine motor skills. There were a total of fifty different activity boxes used in the duration of the study in which students had to move objects in a specific way using tools such as tongs or spoons. For example, in one activity box, students had to carefully place toy tropical fish onto different spool “pedestals” in a certain order using tweezers and then carefully replace the fish in the reverse order. The different activities were phased in and out of the classroom so that students always had several choices. Students practiced these activities for fifteen minutes a day for a total of six months. The activities were also available during free-choice times, so some students may have practiced them more.

All students in both groups were given a pre-test and a post-test using the attention subtest of the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS). Female students in the experimental group showed a statistically significant improvement in their attention on the post-test, while male students showed no significant change. The reasons for this discrepancy are yet to be explored, but perhaps female students found the tasks more interesting and engaging. Hopefully further studies will discover similar activities that can help improve attention for male students. In the meantime, it may be worth it for early education teachers to dedicate some classroom time to activities that specifically practice fine-motor skills in the hopes of improving attention for at least some students.

Stewart, R.A., Rule, A.C., & Giordano, D. A. (2007). The effect of fine motor skills activities on kindergarten student attention. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35 (2).