Importance of Fine Motor

Serena Cuoghi
Title of Professor of Biology

As we learn to control the movements of the larger muscles of the body, the need arises to stimulate and manage adequately the smallest, which direct the fine motor skills of the hands, feet and fingers, as well as the face, as we move towards joint coordination that allows the development of detailed activities such as: 1) using pencils and colors to write and draw; 2) manipulating tiny objects such as buttons on clothes; 3) maneuvering with tools to carry out various actions through the grip of hands and fingers; 4) perform subtle movements such as those required to brush teeth and comb one's hair; and 5) the synchronization of opposing movements such as those required to tie shoelaces or use a microscope.

As a particular quality, in fine motor skills, the greatest underlying skill is the relationship between hand movements and visual perception through visuomotor coordination, being that for people with visual disabilities the process of developing finesse in the movements of their extremities becomes confusing and slow, compared to someone whose vision is optimal, so a delay or difficulty in the development of these skills in the child can be a sign of being presenting some type of deficiency, not necessarily motor, but rather visual, making its corresponding evaluation by the specialist recommended, in the same way In the same way, an adult who suddenly presents problems in this level of movements could be subject to a neurological problem such as neurodegenerative diseases type Parkinson's or Alzheimer's or a neurovascular condition, and the evaluation of fine motor skills can be used as a resource to monitor the progress of both the disease and of recovery.

subtleties of movement

Depending on the type of movement and the small muscle groups that are involved, fine motor skills can be categorized into: 1) gestural coordination, where all the bodily micro-expressions that we use to communicate in an informal way are grouped together. verbal; 2) facial coordination; with which in a more generalized way processes such as the chewing of food are carried out and also the expression of emotions with the face, such as raising the eyebrows or winking and even kiss; 3) visual-motor coordination, which in turn is called visopedic when the movement of the feet is correlated with the visual attention on them, while when the attention is focused on the function of the hands it is referred to as visomanual; and 4) the phonetic coordination that allows us the ability to speak, but also its regulation through training conscious in its use, as is done with the speaking exercises, reading aloud and with greater emphasis on the singing.

Professional skills

Possessing excellent control over fine motor skills translates into a great professional advantage for areas that require manual performance such as mechanics, robotics, chemistry and even to be the personal assistant of a businessman, but unquestionably it becomes an essential requirement when dealing with the surgical specialties of medicine, where the failure in the control of visuomotor coordination can have a tragic outcome, being necessary to avoid it maintaining an exercise routine for the smallest muscles of the body, which can be based on the practice of the specific movements required by the professional specialty, in addition to those conventional ones that are implemented from the childhood, such as tearing strips of paper, handling balls and other small objects between the fingers, and transferring figures through their geometric voids, overcoming various obstacles.

the fineness of art

Among the professions that depend on fine motor skills for the direct realization of their resulting products are the multiple forms of expression art, from ceramics, through painting, sculpture and jewelry, to literature and music itself, absolutely all forms of expression of art develop their beauty to the maximum thanks to the possibility of controlling the movement of the extremities to the smallest detail with which to allow ourselves reach the highest levels of perfection in the works, fact in turn demonstrates the necessary cooperation between fine motor skills and attention to what is being doing, an activity that provides great benefits for people with attention deficit disorder and other mental and personality disorders, finding in the stimulation of fine motor skills through artistic activities an important resource to exercise attention and self-control of the other parts of your body and from one's own mind.

References

Constant, m. (2017). Fine motor area skills and early stimulation activities. Publishing Magazine, 4(11 (1)), 526-537.

Rigal, R. (2006). Motor education and psychomotor education in preschool and primary. Inde.

Serrano, P., & de Luque, C. (2019). Fine motor skills in boys and girls: Development, problems, improvement strategies and evaluation (Vol. 84). Narcea Editions.

Umbo Yahuana, H. (2020). Fine and gross motor skills in children of initial education.