During the past month, the undergraduates in my Child Development class have been at the Children’s School observing the ways that our environment is designed to both match the physical development level of the children and to promote the advancement of their motor skills.  They’ve noticed the children practicing self-care skills at arrival (hand-washing, hanging belongings in lockers, etc.), at snack time (pouring, spreading, etc.), and while donning winter gear for the trek to the gym.  They’ve been amazed at the improvement from
preschool to kindergarten in large motor skills for climbing stairs, doing basic warm-ups, running and aiming soccer kicks. 

The Art & Artists exploration provided a broad array of fine motor skills for observation, from cutting collage materials, to weaving ribbon, to chopping beets for making dye, to unscrewing machine parts for use in sculptures, to painting with lots of different tools.  Naturally, there were also many opportunities for watching children practice the more complex “graphomotor” skills involved in manipulating writing / drawing tools to represent ideas in drawings or words.

With all of these types of motor skills, the key is for us to provide just the right level of challenge so that the child enjoys the experience enough to practice repeatedly until the skill becomes more coordinated and muscles are strengthened for more extended use.  We provide detailed instructions with step-by-step demonstrations and enough child-sized materials so that groups can work on skills at the same time.  In some cases, teachers arrange specific projects and encourage all children to participate.  In addition to these introductions, we offer open-ended explorations so that children can practice skills at their own pace for their own purposes. 
In either case, teachers are available to help each child by providing individually-tailored levels of encouragement, coaching, and assistance.  In all cases, we emphasize using tools appropriately (i.e., safely and responsibly) without adding any pressure to produce perfect products.  Here again, we aim to help children build confidence in their emerging skills and motivation to persist throughout the learning process.

We invite you to join us for the Family Arts Festival so that you can both observe your children’s use of motor skills during a wide range of explorations and enjoy your own visual arts experiences here.  Be alert to the beauty of the artwork surrounding you and to the amazing capability of the artists in our midst!