Relation between motor skill and task comprehension in young children

Abstract

In a preliminary test, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children were asked to cut some figures on a piece of paper with scissors. Most of the 3-year-old children couldn?t stop cutting right at the corner of the given figures. It was discussed that the cause of their failure might come from a lack of task comprehension rather than a lack of finger manipulation ability. In the first experiment, in order to facilitate the task comprehension, the goal of the task was clearly showed to 3-year-old children; it was then that they could stop cutting at the proper place. In the second experiment to confirm the effects of facilitating task comprehension, two different condition groups were compared. The group given detailed instructions showed an improvement of motor performance with each successive trial, while the other group receiving constant instruction over the trials, showed little improvement. These results suggested that it was important for motor skill in young children to make clear for themselves the task goal and to activate their conscious self-regulation. © 1990, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.