What are Motor Skills?

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are the skills that enable a person to use the small muscle groups in their hands and wrist. These skills require coordination between the brain and muscle groups. Fine motor skills start to develop in early childhood and continue to develop until late childhood or early adulthood. Examples of fine motor skills are:

• Holding a pen or pencil correctly
• Good penmanship or drawing basic images, like shapes
• Using a keyboard correctly
• Using scissors, rulers, and other handheld tools
• Getting dressed from head to toe, including shoes
• Brushing and flossing teeth

The ability to hold a pencil correctly when writing requires the development of fine motor skills.

The underdevelopment of fine motor skills can result in difficulty with everyday activities such as school or work. A common cause of difficulty with fine motor in children is developmental coordination disorder or DCD which is also referred to as dyspraxia. Difficulty with fine motor skills can improve with occupational therapy (OT).

Closed Motor

A closed motor skill is a skill that takes place in a controlled environment where the person decides when to start and stop the movement. Closed motor skills are typically easy to execute since they rely on one person's actions. Examples of closed motor skills are:

• Swinging a bat
• Jumping on a trampoline
• Golf swing
• Throwing a discus
• Simple gymnastics such as a handstand
• Diving off a diving board into a pool of water

A golf swing is an example of a closed motor skill.

Open Motor

An open motor skill takes place in an unstable and unpredictable environment. This start and stop of open motor movements is dependent on the environment. These skills can be found with any team-based sport. Wind, speed, and terrain can be factors that affect open motor skills. Examples of open motor skills are:

• Snow Skiing Downhill
• Football
• Basketball
• Soccer
• Hockey
• Tennis

Basketball is an example of an open motor skill.

Serial Motor

Serial motor skills are a joint combination of continuous movement and discrete motor skills that are combined to form a complex skill. Discrete motor skills are quick and deliberate movements such as a kick, throw, catch, twist, turn, or punch. Examples of serial motor skills are:

• A dance routine with deliberate choreography
• Swimming specific strokes
• Higher-level gymnastics

Dancing is an example of a serial motor skill.

Lesson Summary

Motor Skills are the movements our bodies make to perform daily functions such as lifting, moving, writing, and talking. The motor skills an adult possesses start developing at birth and continue through childhood and early adulthood. Motor skills are categorized as gross motor skills or fine motor skills. A person needs to have mastered both to acquire solid movement. Gross motor skills involve the arms, legs, and trunk of the body. Fine motor skills involve small muscle groups like in the hand or wrist.

Motor skills can also be categorized as open motor, closed motor, or serial motor movements. Open motor is when the environment around the skill is uncontrolled. Closed motor is the opposite of open motor and requires a stable and controlled environment. Serial motor is a combination of continuous movement with discrete motor, or deliberate, motor skills.