Effectiveness of Play Activity on Fine Motor Skills among Mentally Retarded Children

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Motor development process is vital for the development of children and lasts their entire lifetime. Mentallyretarded children have some incompetency with their motor developmental process as with other developmental processes.Motor development improves with physical development and growth.Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of play activity on fine motor skills (FMS) among mentally retarded children.Materials and Methods: True experimental pre-test–post-test control group design was used. The study was conducted in theInstitute for Mentally Retarded children. 30 in each (experimental and control) group selected by simple random sampling. MadrasDevelopmental Programming System – behavioral scale used to assess the FMS. Play activity was given to the experimentalgroup, 30 min for 15 days. Post-test was conducted after 5 weeks.Results: Significant improvement noted in fine motor skills in experimental group. Association between FMS and type ofdelivery was significant at P < 0.042.Conclusion: Play activity was effective in improving the FMS among mentally retarded children.