COMPARING THE MOTOR SKILLS OF 4 AND 5-YEAR-OLD EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED GIRLS WITH THEIR PEER GROUPS USING PEABODY DEVELOPMENTAL MOTOR SCALES

Abstract. Objective: The development of motor skills in preschool children plays a fundamental role in subsequent learning, with some researchers believing that motor skill learning determines future learning, and superior mental processes result from the proper development of the perceptual-motor systems. Motor performance in children affects their learning skills, so the lack of proper motor activity is a hurdle involved in a child’s explorative, playing and learning experiences. Method This descriptive, analytical study is cross-sectional in nature. The researcher described and analyzed the motor skill of two subject groups, one consisting of normal girls and the other consisting of educable mentally retarded girls, aged 4 to 5, across Tehran’s kindergartens. Multistage randomization was performed to select a statistical population totaling 60 subjects. The test consisted of two parts; one assessed the gross motor skills and the other assessed the fine motor skills. Results: Data were analyzed by the analysis of variance and t-test. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant deference between 4 and 5-year old normal and educable mentally retarded girls. There was not a significant difference between 5-year old normal and educable mentally retarded girls in terms of the mean value of the fine and gross motor skills and their sub-categories. There was not a significant difference between 4 and 5-year old normal girls in the fine and gross skills based on the Peabody test. Conclusion: Mentally retarded girls had lower ability at gross and soft motor skills than normal girls, and the Peabody test was a proper method to examine this property. Keywords: Motor skills, mentally retarded children, Peabody test