Posted on 11/03/2015 3:15:12 AM PST by Maceman
As art teacher Alisa Leidich sends four vertical lines marching across an oversize drawing pad in paradelike formation, 20 kindergartners put their hands to paper and try their best to mimic her.
It’s not as easy as it might seem.
Local teachers and occupational therapists say an increasing number of children are showing up for kindergarten without the fine motor skills needed to grip a marker, hold their paper still while coloring or cut and glue shapes.
“We’re basically reteaching a lot of things,†says Denver Elementary School’s Denise Young, a teacher for 23 years. “It’s hard to get a lesson accomplished.â€
In a typical year, Young and colleague Trisha Pohronezny estimate just two of 20 students arrive with enough hand strength and coordination to use scissors. Only about half can hold a pencil correctly, versus the fisted approach they should have grown out of by age 3.
Near-constant corrections take valuable time from quick-paced academic programs, while individual sessions to build or strengthen skills require students to miss class and cost districts big money.
Denver Elementary Principal Angela Marley says occupational referrals to address such deficits doubled over a three- to four-year period. Districtwide, Cocalico saw its elementary school therapy spending jump from $85,440 in 2011-12 to $208,104 last school year.
“We’ve been questioning, ‘Why is this happening more and more?’’’ says Linda Cunningham, an occupational therapist with Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 who spends four days a week at Denver Elementary.
“It’s just our busy world. There’s real pressure to get your kid involved (in organized activities) earlier and earlier, so there’s less time to play in the backyard. … Kids need to manipulate their environments to understand spatial concepts. They usually learn not by being told, but by doing.â€
Cocalico officials this year instituted an art program that aims to improve coordination and concentration. In years past, kindergartners had only sporadic exposure to art. Now they get one 25-minute session each week, working on pre-writing concepts and skills like cutting, coloring and spatial orientation.
Surrounded by Monet prints, the Mona Lisa and bottles of bold tempera paint, Pohronezny’s students meet Mr. Line in mid-October.
Leidich has students hop out of their chairs and imitate the line: They stand tall for vertical, pretend to sleep on the floor for horizontal, and skip for a broken line. The idea is to connect the writing skills to physical activity.
Getting students in the earliest grades to move while focusing on a task helps with sensory integration. It can also help build muscle. In some cases, Cunningham says, young students are unable to stay seated for sustained periods because they don’t have adequate trunk strength.
During the animated lesson, Leidich, Pohronezny and an aide work the room, looking for errors in posture, grip and arm support.
Once they’ve made shapes with Mr. Line, they’re invited to do “World’s Best Coloring,†a verbal cue to focus on the image and use slow, controlled movements to stay within the lines.
Students get gentle reminders to keep their “helper hands†on the paper, and when Leidich spots Laiklyn Lloyd closing her fingers around her marker, she takes her hand and shows her how to “pinch the tip and flip it.â€
Concerns about physical readiness for school are growing locally and nationally.
Warwick School District has also seen an increase in occupational therapy needs, according to Melanie Calender, director of elementary education and student services.
Calender says the years between birth and 3 are “instrumental in core muscle development†and recommends parents incorporate a mix of gross and fine motor skills into at-home play.
While Warwick kindergarten teachers continue to focus on fine and gross motor skills through center-based and instructional activities, parents shouldn’t stop providing hands-on opportunities once their kids are school-age.
“They can continue to use the activities they’ve worked on in the preschool years, mindful to keep a balance with screen time,†says Calender.
In Ephrata Area School District, all early childhood programs include fine motor skill development, according to spokeswoman Sarah McBee. That includes Plant the Seed of Learning, a program that started in partnership with Ephrata Community Hospital in 2002 and now serves eight districts. During sessions, children and their parents work on early literacy and science skills while manipulating play dough or catching bubbles.
The New York Times reported in February that public schools in New York City saw a 30 percent increase in the number of students referred to occupational therapy, with the number jumping 20 percent in three years in Chicago and 30 percent over five years in Los Angeles.
While some of those increases are due in part to an increased diagnoses of sensory or autism spectrum disorders, Marley says the additional need at her school is related to children without cognitive impairment.
What’s changed?
Cunningham says many therapists believe the Back to Sleep campaign, which promotes placing infants on their backs to sleep, has delayed muscle development. The problem becomes more pronounced when parents skip wakeful tummy time because their kids don’t like it: toddlers might not be able to hold their bodies upright as well as their peers did years ago.
They might not be as adept at spreading their hands and using their arms to push themselves up, a fundamental base for good seated posture and proper shoulder support when writing. Their eyes also may wander, making focusing on detailed tasks difficult.
Today’s children also spend less time outside, where they might have more opportunities to explore how their bodies move through space, learn to balance and figure how to handle toys and tools in relation to one another.
Some parents, says Cunningham, are afraid to let their children engage in physical play or cut with scissors. Others have traded in the messiness of hands-on play dough for a sterile “educational†tablet.
“Rather than sit and color the way they used to do, our kids are part of the burst of technology,†says Cunningham. “It’s amazing to see a kid who can swipe an iPad, but you put a pair of scissors in their hand and they don’t know what to do.â€
Kindergarten kids showing up without the capacity to draw.
We’re dooooomed.
Nothing like good old fashioned playing to develop motor skills - the more we protect our kids from the chance of getting a boo-boo, the more we atrophy their lifelong survival skills.
Kids are not playing as much. Everything is so damned structure.
Weird.
I went to school in the 80s and answered the first question.
Then again, I went to elementary in a mostly rural area in conservative west Michigan, so there was no social promotion.
Last year an episode of “Doctor Who” did a bit based on that. The doctors companion was a history teacher who was dating a math teacher at her school. They did a little bit about “find X” with the students and a girl said it’s right there at the top, can’t you see it?
LOL
CC
Math wasn’t my strong point but I agree that the rural schools were considerably better here in MI into the 80s.
It isn’t just kindergartners not being able to draw:
Students Not Ready for College
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education-july-dec05-sat_8-30/
yes....when I was young all I heard was “get out of the house”, winter, summer, go and play outside, and we did, went swimming in the summer, ice skating in the winter, never a dull moment...
I’m teaching high school this year, and I have 9th graders who can’t seem to cut decently with scissors, or draw a straight line. I am concerned.
Not ready for college, I’ll buy.
But kindergarten is a stretch.
Electronics and common core and “making everything safe” are ruining our kids.
You just described my 11th grade American Lit class. And they aren't even "ghetto," they're in what is considered a relatively decent, stable neighborhood in L.A. It's entirely Hispanic, but it's not ghetto. But yes, they behave the same way. I say, "Take out your composition book and open to the next blank page of your notes, we're going to take some notes summarizing what we've read so far." And more than half of them just sit there. You have to make eye contact, say their name, repeat, insist, ask, say please, say hurry, say let's go, say I'm waiting for you, Josue! It takes 5-10 minutes each time.
They honestly don't think they should have to do anything. Everything should just be given to them. They are gradually making me despise them to the very depths of my being. I'm hoping to maintain a pleasant demeanor for 5 and a half more years and retire without letting them know what I really think.
That of course was an exaggeration of the problem that does exist.
My youngest was born at 35 weeks, after having the water break at 15 weeks.
We have had a battery of testing to make sure Little Bear is ok. She just had a check up yesterday. The only concern? She doesn’t color. My wife told the doctor that the last time we gave a one year old crayons, she tried to color the dog (and he let her!), so that one is on us.
Little Bear will throw a ball, put shapes into slots, and loves legos. All things the occupational therapist told us she shouldn’t be able to do till age 3 or so because of the stressful pregnancy.
I think the difference is we work with her, and don’t just let her lay on the floor watching TV. Same with he older sister, though they did say she had “Fine motor issues”.
The issue was she wanted to go to recess, and the test person said she could go once she was done. So she stopped drawing and ran outside.
Meanwhile the rate of vaccinations goes up and up and up.
Many enter school with no potty skills, table manners, and speaking skills as well. Most children in the poorest homes were taught the basics of civilization during the hard scrabble ‘20s and ‘30s, something sadly lacking in our society today. However, having no moral training is the most dehumanizing lack of all.
Kids are abandoned to play video games, with little else remaining in their "toy kit" and very little outdoor activity.
Other than that, everything is the same.
Hard to imagine how anyone could abandon (yeah, I said it) a tiny baby, dependent on others for it’s sustenance, to a place where maybe they might pick it up 3-4 times in eight hours. Ever been to a baby room at your standard day-care? It’d break your heart.
Mrs.AV
When I started school back in 1952, I did not know letters or numbers. I was straight off an isolated High Plains ranch.
My folks took me to Kindergarten, found that school had no kindergarten and enrolled me in the first grade, under aged. I struggled for 12 years to keep up. Graduated when I was 17.
My grandson won't enter kindergarten until next year, as he's a September baby...he's five now.
I think he does enough at pre-school to develop those fine motor skills. When he's at our house, all he wants to do is play football and a card matching game called Rush Zone.
After all, football is a religion in Texas. lol
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