Maryam Heidari; Seyed Hashem Mosaddad
Abstract
Extended AbstractBackground and Objectives: The impairment of cognitive development, motor skills, fine motor skills, and the lack of coordination between the child’s eyes and ...
Read More
Extended AbstractBackground and Objectives: The impairment of cognitive development, motor skills, fine motor skills, and the lack of coordination between the child’s eyes and motor organs can negatively impact the learning process at later ages and result in low self-esteem in children. Thus, it is crucial to consider the level of coordination between the child’s eyes and hands when designing products intended for children. The objective of this study is to assess the capability of children in creating products that necessitate eye-hand coordination during their use.Methods: The research conducted was a semi-experimental intervention study. The study involved 20 children between the ages of 3 and 6 who attended a kindergarten in the Panj district of Tehran. The Purdue Pegboard test was used to evaluate the children’s manual dexterity and two-handed coordination. This test is commonly used to measure movement and cognitive skills in a variety of populations, including children, adults, the elderly, post-surgery patients, and those with special needs. The test evaluates both gross movements of arms, hands, and fingers as well as fine motor skills of the fingers. Additionally, the test can also be used to assess cognitive skills. To perform the test, the child was asked to place the pieces on the Purdue Pegboard with the right hand, left hand, and both hands, within a period of one minute, and five separate points were collected, which include the following is.1. Right-hand privilege.2. Left-hand score.3. two-handed privilege.4. The sum of the points of the hands, which is the sum of the points of the right hand + left hand + both hands.Findings: The findings show that most four-, five- and six-year-old children had higher scores on the right hand than the left hand, which could be due to the influence of the dominant hand on the test process, but three-year-old children scored more on the left hand. Also, the findings show that girls scored higher than boys in right hand, left hand, both hands and assembly. Most three-year-old children spent more than three seconds in choosing and deciding to place pieces, while this time was significantly reduced in five- and six-year-old children. The findings showed that the Eye-hand coordination in children increases with age. Most six-year-old children picked up and placed the pieces with two or three fingers, which shows that the child is at an acceptable level in terms of fine finger skills. But three- and four-year-old children were faced with tremors and lack of hand control when removing the parts and placing them, and even some three-year-old children used their other hand to place the parts to prevent tremors and control their hands. Contrary to what was expected, there is no significant relationship between gender and problem-solving skills, but the findings showed that boys try to create a new structure more than girls in the test process.Conclusion: The research results show that the age variable has an effect on the speed of action and Eye-hand coordination as well as the fine dexterity of children’s fingers, and children at older ages have higher and better performance, which is consistent with the results of the study of Pehoski et al. (1997), Brito and Santos-Morales (2002) as well as Wilson et al. (1981). For this reason, necessary measures to improve movement skills should be taken into consideration from the age of three so that the child can improve his skills in the path of growth. Also, the results showed that girls have a higher operating speed in each hand and the assembly process than boys, which is in line with the results of Pehoski et al. and Brito and Santos-Morales. As Brito and Santos-Morales point out, the significant difference in the speed of action between boys and girls is due to the mental differences and neurological development of boys and girls, which affects the concentration and attention of children. The results of this research show that 6-year-old children have better performance in the assembly process, which is affected by cognitive skills, and it can be concluded that with increasing age, cognitive skills such as learning, memory, planning, etc. improve significantly in children. The difference in the scores of boys and girls in the assembly process also shows the influence of gender characteristics on cognitive processes in boys and girls. The observations of this research show that cognitive processes such as learning, memory, problem-solving skills, etc., have an impact on the Purdue Pegboard skill assessment test process, and in this regard, with the study of Bakhshipour et al. (2020), Koyler et al. (2020) and Findik et al. (2022) is aligned. In total, the results of this research showed that 33% of 6-year-old children, 50% of 5-year-old children, and 43.8% of 4-year-old children in the studied community have motor delays in their right and left hands and weakness in Eye-hand coordination. Also, 33% of 3-year-old children had movement delay in the right hand. This research can be used for researchers and designers in the field of children studies in the process of designing interactive environments as well as designing products such as personal accessories, toys, rehabilitation equipment and rehabilitation aids, services and systems. Designers should identify the cognitive, physical and movement characteristics of children in each age range and evaluate the child’s abilities to interact with the desired product because children’s abilities are very different and variable even in normal children of preschool age. Children in this age range try to improve their skills to gain independence and enter the next stages of life, and smart designers can help children in this way. The expectation is that through this approach, we will witness the development of effective and practical products for children.
