EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIVITY BASED PROGRAM IN ENHANCING FINE MOTOR SKILLS OF CHILDREN WITH DYSPRAXIA

Abstract

The plight in India is such that fewer than five percent of disabled children have access to education. One out of every nine children is suffering from learning as well as sight, speech, hearing, locomotive, and mental disabilities. But the numbers of „special education‟ teachers are achingly few. When a disabled child has a right to education like other children, it is the duty of the system not only to educate them but also educate them under the same roof as the other children so that there is no marginalization. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of the researcher made activity based program in enhancing fine motor skills of children with dyspraxia. An experimental study was conducted with a sample of 30 children from the “Association of mentally challenged boys”. They were administered the activity based program which would enhance their fine motor skills. The fine motor skills assessed in the program were Ocular Motor control, Hand-eye coordination, Manual dexterity and Sterognosis. It was found that there is a significant difference between Pre-Test and Post-Test scores of children with Dyspraxia with respect to the four components of fine motor skills. The study suggests that activity based modules could be designed by special educators to be used in the class room as the research empirically proves that activity based module had a positive effect in enhancing the Fine Motor Skills of Children with Dyspraxia.