Volume : 6, Issue : 4, April - 2017

EFFECTIVENESS OF CLAY MODELING IN IMPROVING THE HAND MOTOR SKILLS AMONG MILD MENTALLY RETARED CHILDREN

U. Divya Basi, N. Junior Sundresh

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Introduction: Mentally retarded children are those who have less mobility because of mental conditions, especially in comparison with healthy subjects, and that is why they suffer from physical-motor weakness.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:&#10;0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;&#10;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:&#10;&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Aim: The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of clay modeling in improving the hand motor skills among mild mentally retarded children in selected special school<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:&#10;0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;&#10;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:&#10;&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Methods: </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;&#10;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">The samples for the study were, 35 mild mentally retarded children with decreased hand motor skills. In pretest, hand motor skills of mild mentally retarded children were assessed and then clay modeling has been administered for six weeks. After six weeks, a posttest was conducted in order to assess the hand motor skills of mild mentally retarded children.</span><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:&#10;&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:&#10;0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;&#10;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:&#10;&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Results: During the post test 37.1% of mild mentally retarded children had decreased had motor skills and 62.9% of mild mentally retarded children had moderate hand motor skills. The post test mean score of hand motor skills is 25.3 which was improved than the pretest mean score 20.3 (&lsquo;t&rsquo;=16.015, df =34 and p&lt;0.0001). <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:&#10;0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;&#10;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:&#10;&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif">Conclusion: The result showed that performance in school was associated with the hand motor skills of mild mentally retarded children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>