Thesis (Ph.D.), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / The purpose of this study was to assess the improvement of scissor skills
after a graded scissor skills program in preschool children in South Africa
(SA).
A bilateral fine motor skills assessment tool was developed for use in this
research. This task-based assessment included every day activities required
at school as well as personal management items. This research phase
included the development of the test items and test instructions, scoring as
well as validity and reliability testing of the assessment.
A suitable scissor skills program was then developed for Grade 0 children in
South Africa. The program was validated by a pilot study and also by a focus
group of occupational therapists. Some changes were made to the picture
selection, the grading of the program, as well as to teacher instructions on
how to present the program before it was finalised and ready for use in the
implementation phase of the research study.
The implementation phase of the study included the individual assessment of
149 learners (mean age of 5 years 6 months), from three different schools in
South Africa. The main aim was to establish the effectiveness of the scissor
skills program by measuring skill improvement, transferability of skills and skill
retention. A further aim was to compare the difference of skill levels of
learners from various socio-economic backgrounds in South Africa.
The results showed statistically significant improvement in scissor skills in all
groups from the three different schools, as well as an ability to retain the learnt
skills. Participants from lower socio-economic backgrounds demonstrated the
least skill initially but made the greatest gains during the program, at times
decreasing the gap between themselves and other participants.
It was concluded that children benefited from a graded scissor skills program,
which allowed them to improve and retain their scissor skills but improvement
did not transfer to other fine motor tasks.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/7480 |
| Date | 27 January 2010 |
| Creators | Ratcliffe, Ingrid |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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