Tips for Developing Students' Motor Skills. Motor skills are a skill that must be possessed by every child. This skill is characterized by the presence of the ability to move limbs, such as the head, lips, tongue, hands, feet, and fingers.
In other
developed countries such as Australia, England, America, and France, motor
learning is one of the learnings that must be emphasized compared to other
learning concepts.
The meaning of motor learning itself is learning that prioritizes direct practice in the field. Students are also required to be able to master it and apply all the theories and concepts that have been learned while in school.
But unfortunately, there are still many schools and teachers in Indonesia who do not understand
how to apply motor learning to students. Even some of them still do not
understand the concept of motor learning and its benefits for students.
Most people think
that motor learning can only be done in automotive, sports, arts, and other
lessons related to physical exercise. Even though it's not always so, you can
also develop students' motor skills during classroom learning.
Children's motor
skills themselves are their ability to move limbs, such as the tongue, hands, feet,
lips, head, and fingers. The movement will be formed as they grow.
There are two
types of motor skills, namely fine motor skills that allow the child to perform
various easy activities such as drawing, writing, taking food or drink, and
others.
And the second is gross motor which makes children carry out various daily activities that
involve the movement of large muscles such as the muscles of the arms, body, and
legs, for example, walking, stepping, sitting, standing, holding their body, and
others.
Objectives and Functions of Motor Development
The purpose of
motor development is to examine the process of phasing out the ability to move,
whether the movement ability of the child is in accordance with the stage of
his age or not, and whether special treatment is needed or not.
The function of
motor development is the mastery of skills that are depicted in the ability to
solve certain tasks of motion. The quality of motion can be seen from how far
the child is able to display the given motion task with a certain degree of
success.
Benefits of Motor Skills
There are so many
benefits that can be felt from practicing motor skills for students. There are
four aspects that benefit from the development of motor skills in students.
- Physiological aspects and great motor
abilities will make him move more and exercise. This makes his blood
circulation, breathing, and posture formation better.
- Emotional and social aspects, when
students with good motor skills will have great self-confidence. This
makes it more accepted in its environment so that it is also indirectly
beneficial to the social aspect.
- Cognitive aspects and motor abilities
will foster students' creativity and imagination which is part of the
student's mental development. Thus, many experts emphasize that physical
activity will be able to improve the intellectual well-being of students.
Ways to Develop Students' Motor Skills
The following are ways to develop students'
motor skills that can be done by teachers.
1. Painting, Coloring,
and Drawing
Painting or drawing and coloring become one
of the activities that students like when studying in class. In addition to being fun, this activity is also right to
exercise their creativity.
Students can also practice their finger motor skills to grasp
and move brushes, colored
pencils, or crayons through painting or
drawing activities.
By doing these activities, students'
imagination and level of creativity will also be further honed.
Students who have been taught and accustomed to painting, drawing, or coloring from a young age
have better learning and remembering abilities. This activity makes children smarter.
Students are also trained to hold pencils or
crayons correctly and precisely. The student's hand scratches while holding a pencil or crayons will make eye coordination and smooth muscles of the hand trained.
If the student is increasingly interested in this activity, it is possible
that he will become a professional painter in the future.
2. Arranging the Blocks
Stacking blocks is one of the simple games to train students' motor skills.
When performing this game, the child will be trained to move the muscles of his
fingers.
Later they will be able to reach and grasp an
object better.
Not only that but stacking blocks can also help stimulate a
child's body movement coordination ability. This will be much better if done from an early age. It is even better if the child is still an infant, aged between
6 to 8 months.
3. Pushing and Pulling Toys
Students can be invited to push or pull toys
from an early age. Toys that can be tried to be used can be large toys, for example, toy cars
and large trucks. Using other items besides toys can also be.
In
addition to what can be done indoors, children can also be invited to train their motor skills by
playing outdoors. It can be done in the yard or garden around for example.
What can be done is to play ball, cars, or play chases. Or it could be pushing toy cars and trucks outdoors.
4. Play
Stickers or Paste Colorful Paper
Maybe playing
stickers or pasting-pasting sounds easy and has less benefit. Make no mistake,
this activity will challenge children and become a means of sharpening their
motor intelligence.
It can be done by
preparing colorful pieces of paper and glue that are safe for children.
Furthermore, in the picture book that has been patterned, the child will stick
colorful paper.
They will adjust
the paper to be pasted with a patterned drawing book.
If they stick
stickers or colorful paper that doesn't match the pattern, stay tuned and tell
them what they did. Guide and direct them so that they better understand and
understand which patterns to paste.
5. Folding
Paper
Developing motor
intelligence can also be done by doing paper folding games. It can be started
by teaching them simply, for example, folding paper so that it is straight and
aligned.
Help them first
at the beginning. Help in measuring and determining the folds of paper. At
first, there must be something less neat, but teach it until it can be neat
enough, and don't forget to give appreciation.
Doing a paper
folding game can help children practice coordination between hand and eye
movements. The game also helps the child simply understand the shape and size.
6. Installing
and Unbuttoning Clothes
This activity may
be somewhat strange, unreasonable, and useless. However, attaching and
unbuttoning shirts can improve
children's motor skills, as their fingers move when doing that.
In addition, when
the child performs the practice of attaching and unbuttoning clothes, it will
help provide stimulation to hold small objects on the fingers of their hands.
At the same time, it also exercises coordination between his hands.
This activity
should be carried out pleasantly. It takes the patience of the child that must
be taught by teachers and parents.
Training
children's patience is difficult, so putting on and unbuttoning clothes can be
an alternative. In addition to practicing patience also develop their motor
intelligence.
7. Finger
Painting
This activity
must certainly be carried out safely and with full supervision. Give the
children safe paint and let them paint with the paint in their hands.
Give them a place
to explore his paintings well. Let them paint even if the clothes and places to
paint are quite dirty.