Young children who had been identified as having co-ordination problems have made massive improvements as a result of undergoing a ten-week programme of targeted activities.
The simple programme devised by researchers at Leeds University involved the children, aged between three and five years old, undertaking routine tasks such as bursting bubble wrap or riding a trike for 20 minutes a day for four or five days a week.
It is hoped that the progress the children made in the development of their motor skills will be sustained and will prevent them from having Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), or dyspraxia, which can blight a child's life.
'About 5 per cent of children have DCD - that is about one child in every class of 30,' says Dr Mary Chambers, senior lecturer in the School of Education at Leeds University.
'It can affect the child for life. If they don't get help, they tend to under-achieve at school because their manual dexterity is not good, so they have problems with writing.
'In secondary school, they can have problems because they may not get the work done quickly enough. They can develop behavioural problems and a feeling of low self-esteem.
'Obviously this won't happen to every child, because some find strategies to work around these issues. But most will continue to have difficulties throughout their lives.'
The research team, led by Professor David Sugden, is writing a booklet that they hope to publish next year, so that early years practitioners can run the programme of activities themselves.
'Previously we worked with older age groups and had done research with seven- to nine-year-olds and followed them up at 11,' says Dr Chambers. 'However, DCD doesn't just start when they arrive at school. What we know about motor development is that by the time children reach school at six years of age, they have developed their motor skills. After that, they might refine them or improve them, but any skills they learn from that point will be an extension of what they already know. The basic motor skills that you have are there by six to seven years of age.
'I cannot say they have DCD at three to four years of age, but the likelihood is that if it is unchecked they will develop full-blown DCD when they are aged about six or seven.
'We didn't know what was going to happen, because nobody had worked with this age group before. If we could do something when they were showing co-ordination problems at three to four years old, then we might save them from developing this later.'
On the scale
The project, funded by the charity Action Medical Research, worked with 35 children across ten settings in Bridgend, including nurseries attached to schools, day nurseries and reception classes, in the spring and summer of 2006.
The children who took part were identified by practitioners using a checklist, devised by Dr Chambers. It assesses children's dexterity and co-ordination in four different areas:
- Manual dexterity skills -can the child put on a T-shirt without help; can the child wash his hands or use cutlery to eat?
- Desk skills - can the child turn single pages of a book, use scissors to cut along a line, use a construction toy like Lego?
- General classroom skills - can the child walk across the room without bumping into people?
- Recreational playground skills - can the child roll a ball, stop a ball rolling towards him, ride a three-wheeler?
'These are basic routine things. The teacher can go through it saying yes this child can do this or can't do that. The schools ran the checklist and the scores are adjusted according to a child's age. The scale shows that if a child falls within the 5th and 15th percentile for his age group that would be a cause for concern.
'With the children aged four and over we also ran the Movement Assessment Battery for Children test looking at balance skills, manual skills and ball skills to confirm the checklist observations.'
The team devised a programme of activities so the practitioners could work with each child on priority areas. The intervention ran across ten weeks with a half-term break in the middle.
'We devised an experiential intervention,' says Dr Chambers. 'The activities were not off-the-wall or very specialised. A visitor coming into the classroom could not have said, "that's the child with the problems". We asked them to do 20 minutes a day for four to five days a week, as we say little and often is the way to improve.
'The idea was to use things that can be found in any classroom or nursery room that they could work on. For example, for manual dexterity we asked them to pick up small objects such as buttons and beads and put them in a wide-brimmed container. The aim was for the child to use their thumb and forefinger, but some tried to use all their fingers.
'Another activity was to burst bubble wrap. They love doing that, but it takes quite a lot of force to pinch your thumb and forefinger together. Many of these children do not have much force behind their thumb and forefinger.
'Another manipulative motor skill activity was to ask the child to crumple up a piece of A4 paper in one hand, then smooth it out and tear it up into lots of pieces. We also had a playdough activity where they had to pinch their thumb and forefinger together and make spines for a hedgehog.
'For the ball skills activities, we start with something like a beanbag and then get the child to move on to a ball. They pass the ball around the body and pass the ball from hand to hand to hand. Gradually we decrease the size of the ball.
'For the balance exercise, one activity is to get the child to stand on a carpet square and move around the square.
'One group went through the programme during the spring term and the other group went through it in the summer term. We asked the teachers to run the checklist again, and for the children who were by then over four years old we also ran the Movement ABC. There was a massive improvement. Most of them were up with their peer group. Just seven scored below the 15th percentile but only three were below the fifth percentile. They had all improved, but not enough to take them out of that group.
'We hope to return after Christmas to see where they are now and if they have sustained those improvements. Some of the children made such rapid progress, it was clear their problems had been down to lack of experience.'
Dr Chambers adds, 'There was no need to give the teachers and practitioners any special training for running the activities. We left them to it because it is such everyday stuff. That is the beauty of it.'
FURTHER INFORMATION
- To contact Dr Mary Chambers, e-mail M.E.Chambers@education.leeds.ac.uk
- Early Years Movement Skills: Description, Diagnosis and Intervention, written by Dr Chambers and Professor Sugden and published by Wiley-Blackwell (ISBN-10: 1861564988), contains a copy of the skills checklist
LINKS TO EYFS GUIDANCE
- UC 1.2 Inclusive Practice
- PR 2.3. Supporting Learning
- EE 3.2 Supporting Every Child
