Effect of Fine Motor Skill Training on Decoding Skills in School Going Children

Objectives To find the effect of fine motor skill training on decoding skills in school going children between the ages of 4 to 9 years and to compare its effect between both the genders. Study design An Experimental study on 30 school going children between the ages of 5-9 years, was conducted in Pune, India. The Abecedarian Reading Assessment for decoding skills. The children underwent fine motor skill training for a period of 2 weeks, three times per week for 45 minutes, which included, weight bearing exercises, theraputty exercises, theraband exercises, activities using different textures and ADL activities. Paired T test was used for statistical analysis. Results A total of 30 children with a mean age of 7 years were included. Paired T test showed statistically significant improvement in post training decoding skills (t=16.9, p=less than0.0001) in male children (28.55, 39.55) of age 6 years (23.60, 34.80). Conclusion Fine motor skill training was found to be effective in improving decoding skills.