The Effect of Development Education on Fine Motor Skills of 18-Month-Old Children

The initial years of life particularly the first two years are regarded as the most important brain development period. The development of children is an important determinant of health throughout the whole of life. We aimed to evaluate an educational program to improve the fine motor skills of 18-month-old children.

This randomized clinical trial was conducted in the city of Saqqez, Iran in 2015-2016. Seventy 18-month-old infants were randomly assigned to control (n=35), and intervention (n=35) groups. The training of fine motor skills was given to the mothers of the children of intervention group, including: painting, building a tower, stringing, tearing and crushing a piece of paper, targeting and dropping. Fine motor skills were measured before intervention and 4 and 8 weeks after the intervention using ASQ-II screening tool (Age and Stage Questionnaire, Second Edition). Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0.

In the intervention and control group, 51.5% (n=17) were male and 48.5% (n=16) were female. Statistical test of Chi-square showed that there was no statistically significant difference in terms of gender (p=0.59). According to independent t-test, there was no significant difference in the mean of fine motor score before intervention in the two groups with (p = 0.13). The repeated measurement test showed that 4 and 8 weeks after training, the scores of fine movements with (p = 0.04) became significant.

Based on the results, developmental skills training compared with control group improved the fine motor skills of 18-month-old children in this study.