Evaluate fine motor skills in students of differents socioeconomic status / Avaliação da coordenação apendicular em escolares de dois niveis socioeconomicos distintos

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

A child?s nervous system is a system in constant change resulting from the interaction of internal and external forces. Motor skills are the end result of this complex development. Appendicular coordination is one of the essential motor acquisitions in a child?s neuro-psychomotor and intellectual development. With it the child is able to perform important activities such as ?fine tweezer? and thumb opposition movements that are indispensable for writing. The purposes of this study were initially to evaluate and compare the appendicular coordination of elementary school first graders from differing socio-economic backgrounds. Then to observe the factors associated with the inadequate development of such coordination and the lateral dominance behavior. The evaluation involved 238 students. Out of the 238 students, 118 were from a public school and 120 came from a private school. They were evaluated as to appendicular coordination through the Evolutional Neurological Test. A questionnaire containing information on parents and child was previously responded to by the responsible parent. The schools were deliberately selected to represent the two different socioeconomic levels intended. In the data analyses for the association tests the chi-square test and the odds ratio test using the univaried logistic regression method followed by multivaried analysis were used. The Mann-Whitney test was used for comparing means. In the public school it was observed that 73.3% of the children showed inadequate appendicular coordination, while in the private school only 22.5% (p=0.0001) displayed such trait. As compared to private school children, public school children were 5.5 times more likely to have inadequate motor coordination for their age. Children who started school after 4 years of age presented a 2.8 times greater risk to have inadequate appendicular coordination than the children who started school before that age. When the children from the two schools were analyzed separately to identify the factors associated within each group, in the public school the starting school age remained within the model. The children who started school after 4 years of age presented a risk 4.21 times greater for inadequate coordination. In the private school no variable remained within the model. As to lateral dominance, children with appendicular coordination showed more inconstant manual preference (p=0.0007). There is a difference in the appendicular coordination of children in the first grade of the elementary school of different socioeconomic levels. Socioeconomic factors and a child?s late entry in school are the factors that most influence appendicular coordination

ASSUNTO(S)

desenvolvimento infantil fatores socioeconomicos capacidade motora motor skill socioeconomic factors child development

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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