Hocus P(F) ocus …. Handwriting Locus…

I have many friends who teach in primary schools in the North-West of England. Common concerns that most primary school teachers share with me are: “What can I do to get the students to focus better in class?”, “How can I help this kid improve their handwriting?”, and ‘‘Is there something that can be done to enhance attention span in children?’

A simple answer to all these questions: yes, all of that can be done. The time kids enter middle childhood (6- 8years) is when they commence their formal academic life that requires them to step up and focus intensely on multi-sensory activities such as reading, writing, developing social skills. It ranges from being independent, tying their own shoelaces, buttoning their shirts, coats, attending classes, writing notes, sustaining their attention for longer periods to name a few. The activities mentioned above require fine motor skills and cognitive abilities, namely attention.

What are fine motor skills? What are they used for? Fine motor skills are the synchronised coordinated movements of the small muscles in our fingers. Fine motor skills are used on an everyday basis by individuals from brushing one’s teeth, to opening jar lids, typing on the laptop, writing and complex activities like making craft, sewing, drawing, or playing the guitar. Most of the activities that we as individuals execute on an everyday basis require attention and concentration. Attention may be defined as a cognitive process where an individual gives his/her entire focus to all minute details that a particular task or activity demands to help process the steps that it involves. Any activity that involves new learning or executing an old learnt behaviour, a physical activity or even a mental task requires attention. Reading a book, driving, cooking, even listening to a telephonic conversation, we need to be attentive!

Any typically developing child is faced with the humongous task of trying to balance previously learnt behaviour with constant new learning. In most cases attention and concentration go hand in hand with new learning or trying to master a particular task. In schools one of the primary requirements is to enable students to write independently as they advance to higher classes. This means the child needs to recruit multiple cognitive faculties; listening to instructions in class, processing them, translating them into actions, engaging fine motor skills to write.

Neuroscience literature over the past few years suggests that neural pathways that are recruited for basic cognitive abilities such as selective attention, visual memory, visuomotor coordination, planning and decision making are also recruited for performing voluntary physical movements. This implies that the region in the brain that helps us move to music, ride a bicycle, run, jump up and down, slice a toast could also help us to make lists, make us think or even help us decide how to level up whilst playing a video game! So could this mean that if we train ourselves to play the piano, a physical activity that requires fine motor skills it could also improve our attention which may help us read better? Possibly! A group of researchers even identified that training children solely in fine motor activities was effective in increasing their attention. [1]

So, how can we apply all of this and assist typically developing children help achieve their maximum potential? How can we ensure that they are able to sustain their attention for long periods in classrooms? How can we help them improve their fine motor skills and support them to improve their handwriting?