The Effect of Perceptual- Motor training and Spark’s Program on Mentally Retarded Children’s Fine Motor Skills.

Background & Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of motor-perceptual exercises and Spark’s exercise as well as a combination of them (motor-perceptual exercises and Spark’s exercises) on mentally retarded and educable girls’ fine motor skills aged between 7 to 10. Material &Methods: In order to do so 40 kids aged 7 to 10 were selected by cluster sampling method among Sanandaj special schools. Then pre-test was done and the kids were divided, based on pre-test scores and peer-making method, into four groups: perceptual-motor exercises (N=10), Spark’s programming (N=10), combinational (N=10) and control group (N=10). Bruininks- Ozertesky’s test was used to evaluate motor skills. Experimental groups participated the exercises for 24 sessions. At the end the subjects went through post-test. For the analysis of data, dependent t student Tests and one-sided analysis of variance were used. Result: The results showed that the three groups of motor-perceptual program, Spark’s program and combinational group had a better performance in fine motor skills compared to control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: The used educational programs could be an appropriate motor experience for mentally retarded children.