The rationale for my topic
I had
noticed through my observations that some of the children were lacking skills
to open food packets and found holding pencils and writing tools really
difficult. I researched how to encourage fine motor skills and read Alistair
Bryce-Clegg ‘Getting Ready to Write’ paperback – 26 Apr 2013. I also looked at
his blog called ‘ABC Does’ where I came across his funky fingers blog,
September 26. I also re-read Mary Sheridan ‘Birth to Five’ 2014 about the
importance of fine motor skills and my mentor, who is my class teacher, shared
with me some information from a course she had attended hosted by Penny Tassoni. Penny
explained the importance of fine motor movements are assessed and also planned
for, all developmental skills are interconnected the types of skills are: hand
eye co-ordination, strength muscles in hands, helps develop pincer grasp,
tripod grasp, bilateral hand use, finger isolation and hand arches. This is
where I first came across Shonette Bason 'dough disco' on YouTube
Dough disco
aims were to encourage the children to improve their fine motor skills and
strengthen their muscles in their hands. The hand is an extraordinary and
complex piece of machinery, made up of lots of joints muscles that interconnect
and work together to provide dexterity. Encouraging
fine motor skills allows children to explore manipulate objects, these are all
needed for handwriting movements. We all need to
be able to co-ordinate both sides of the body at the same time in a controlled
way. For example being able to do the
same things at the same time like jumping puddles or pushing open door, this is
called Bilateral co-ordination. Being able to co-ordinate
both sides of the body is an indication that both sides of the brain are
communicating and sharing information with each other. Walking is a good example of this where our arms and
legs will be making a similar movement to each other but in a sequence.
Finger isolation
You need to be able to move each finger one at a time, really young
children will move all their fingers together in a grasping motion. As children
develop they learn to move their fingers individually. This is important in the
development of fine motor skills as it is the mechanism that allows children to
hold and manipulate tools such as the paintbrush or pencil as well as being
able to push buttons and do a host of everyday essential skills like doing up
shoes-laces. Halverson (1931) did research on grasping and it resulted in the
compilation of a ten-stage scale of grasping development starting with ulnar
grasp which replaces grasp reflex from birth moving on to the pincher grasp.
Pincer grasp or
grip
This is when you use your thumb and index finger. The most basic form of
this skill is when children use all fingers to rake items into the palm of
their hand. Their next phase of development might be pinching items with the
thumb against the side of the index finger before moving on to a more
accomplished grip where they can use the end of their thumb and forefinger in a
pincer grasp to manipulate small objects effectively.
By
introducing disco dough on a daily afternoon time slot straight after
registering the children get use to the routine, each child has their own pot
of dough with their name and photo. They take it in turn to hand out the pots
whilst I put the music on for the children and set up some other more
challenging activities. This activity will help develop and strengthen fine and
gross motor dexterity, hand and eye co-ordination, grip and most importantly
their self-esteem. Once we had introduced this routine we were able to assess
all the children and adapt our funky finger activity to meet each individual
child’s needs by adding more resources.
I also wanted to make areas where the children could self-select this
resource by using some recordable postcard with instructions using Dough-disco
as the children had enjoyed her enthusiasm especially as she used well-known
finger rhymes that they could imitate.
Resources
Playdough
pot per child with a labels for the child to make their own
Tweezers
Hole-punch
Buttons and
straws
Scissors
Small pegs
with paper clothes and a small washing line
Nuts and
bolts
Padlocks and
keys
Pipettes and feathers
Below is an account from my Mentor on
how the disco dough has been received since introducing it:
Disco Dough and Funky Fingers
Mrs Smith suggested Disco Dough when we were chatting
about some of the Reception boy’s fine motor skills - although they were
appearing to be dexterous and to have strength in their fingers and hands with
construction activities some were lacking the muscle strength to hold pencils
and writing tools and to use them effectively, and some were still finding
buttons, opening tuck food packets etc. really tricky.
Disco Dough is the first activity after the lunch break
every day and the children really look forward to it and have taken
responsibility for handing out the playdough, recognising the colours that they
each have. Maths is incorporated: the children have to divide the dough into
halves and only use a half each, the halves are often then divided into quarters
during the activity and there is often counting squeezes etc.
During the first few sessions of Disco Dough we noticed
that all the children found some movements hard. They found it difficult to roll the playdough
between their 2 hands, using the palm of their hands and that instead of
rolling it into a sausage they were choosing instead to squeeze the dough to
stretch it. They also found it hard to use each finger separately when they
were pushing their fingers individually into the dough, tending instead to tap
it lightly with their index fingers, not pushing it enough to make an
indentation. Combining 2 actions was hard for them, for example making a sawing
movement using the edge of the hand across the playdough but also using enough
downward pressure to push through the playdough while doing the action. It was
very apparent that the activity was exercising their hands and at the end of
one of the first sessions, one of the boys said that their hands felt really
tired.
Within a week all the children were using the playdough
with more determination, aware of trying to use alternative fingers, using more
strength with their squeezing and when pushing palms together to roll. They
seem to be building up more stamina in their hands and there haven’t been any
more comments about achy hands.
Some children need more individual guidance and we are trying to build
up resources so that children can access individual funky fingers activities
while smaller groups take part in closely led disco dough sessions to practise
very specific skills.
It has been a great initiative and we are already beginning to see
improvements with mark-making and using simple tools like a hole-punch and
scissors.
Reception class
continuous provision for fine motor skills malleable area and writing area.
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Personal, social and Emotional
Development
·
Work as part of
a group or class taking turns and sharing fairly. Select and use activities
and resources independently
·
Continue to be
interested excited and motivated to learn.
·
Form good
relationships with adults and peers
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Knowledge
and understanding of the world
·
Investigate
objects and materials by using all of their senses as
·
Appropriate
select the tools and techniques they need to shape assemble and join
materials they are using.
·
Select the
tools and techniques they need to shape assemble and join materials they are
using
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Communication language and Literacy
·
Interact with
others negotiating plan and activities and taking turns in conversations –use
talk to organise sequence and clarify thinking ideas feelings and events
·
Use their
phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically
plausible attempts at more complex words attempt writing for different
purposes using features of different forms such as lists labels captions and
begin to form simple sentences.
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Physical development
·
Handle tools
objects construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing
control
·
use a range of
small and large equipment
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Reasoning numeracy and problem solving
·
Use developing
mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems
·
talk about
recognise and recreate simple patterns use everyday words to describe
position
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Creative
development
·
Express and
communicate their ideas thoughts and feelings by using a wide range of
materials and suitable tools
·
respond in a
variety of ways to what they see hear smell touch and feel express and
communicate their ideas thoughts and feelings buy wide range of materials explore colour texture
shape form space in two and three dimensions
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Role of the Practitioner
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organisation:
·
Defined writing
area table with chairs alphabet frieze, phonic cards, photos of children
participating in routines and activities in the area
·
Examples of
different scripts and children’s display board.
·
Tables/table
top with wipe able top.
·
Accessible
well-organised, labelled with photos air-tight containers. child height chairs
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Permanent resources:
·
Range of
mark-making/writing tools- pencils crayons chalks, felt tip pens white board
markers pens, biro (range of thickness and colours)
·
Range of mark
making/writing materials –paper, card post-it note books, envelopes, diaries
white boards chalk boards (different
colour shapes sizes and textures)
·
Range of making
holes scissors hole punch palm puncher corner puncher staplers tweezers
·
Joining
materials – pritt-stick, Sello-tape scissors rubbers name cards and wooden
letters and numbers.
·
Variety of
malleable materials to include play-dough coloured textured different aromas
salt dough filo clay gloop cornflour icing sugar shaving foam
·
Variety of
tools rolling pins, cutters, right handed and left handed scissors containers
cooking utensils printing resources laminated play dough recipes.
·
Enhancement
of resources through assessment
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Practitioner
communication and interactions :
·
To encourage
children to access the area and explore available resources.
·
To support
children as they develop their skills of independence within routines and
activities within area
·
To role model
writing –mark making writing for a purpose
·
To role model
and introduce children to new vocabulary through a broad range of practical
experiences incorporating descriptive commentary
·
To support
child self - initiated play through positive and challenging interactions,
following the child’s lead
·
To observe
independent activities for intervention and future planning
·
To role model
making and describing what has been made
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Vocabulary:
· Resources for writing: paper treasury tag hole punch
crayons etc
· Resources for malleable: rolling pins cutters clay
dough etc..
·
Actions for
writing and cutting : Drawing writing
cutting sticking
·
Actions for
malleable: roll cut squash flatten smell feel …….
·
Descriptive for
malleable: squashy sticky hard set shiny colour shape …..
·
Descriptive for
writing and cutting colour size shape texture ……..
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Assessment Look, listen and note
Observe children’s learning
and identify possible *schemas( repeated patterns of behaviour/play ) plan next steps to incorporate children’s
stages of development and interests implementing personalised learning
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ideas for improvements in the area or
for more resources to be added
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Here are
some photos of the children and I participating in our Disco Dough and more resources
for the children to develop strength in their hands which I have introduced to
improve the provision. (Due to
our school policy about confidentiality all the faces of children have been
obscured and I obtained parent’s permission for their photos to be used):
Superhero Smoothie 
