Dynamics of the Graphic Motor Skills in Pre-School Age Children (a Neuropsychological Evaluation)

The article represents results from a research of the graphomotor skills of pre-school aged children, since this competences are fundament for their successful future school education. A neuropsychological assessment of the relation between the graphic skills and the maturation of brain structures is been made. The disperse analysis represents a significant impact of the factors gender, settlement and age upon the probed function. 1. Current Paradigms During the last decades the development of the child neuropsychology is too intensive, refering to the Western as well as and to the Eastern scientific paradigms. After the Russian author Akhutina (2006) this intensive development evokes new divisions, like the neuropsychology of the normal functions and the child neuropsychology. Using data from other neurosciences (like neurophysiology and neuroanatomy) the child neuropsychology has the aim to investigate the ontogenesis and developmental mechanisms of the higher psychic functions – gnosis, praxis and language. An additional contribution has the usage of data from neuroimaging methods, which reflect and record the brain activity during the execution of the different cognitive and behavioral tasks. In other words these methods create new diagnostic and prognostic possibilities for the child neuropsychology which pays attention not only to the cases of psychic disontogenesis, but also to the mechanisms of normal psychic development. The early application of the neuropsychological diagnostic enquires lets the outlining of the individual typological particularities in children’s development to be done and also a formation of inner subgroups within the whole range of the norm of the children population. This division of subgroups is necessary when taking into consideration the different maturation time of the structures of the brain and consequently psychic functions. There is a diversity of variation of the individual development and therefore the importance of the neuropsychological diagnosis has to be enhanced especially in reference to evaluation of the readiness of the children to be involved in school education. Current tendency shows that the specialists and the explorers predominantly pay attention to the developmental problems in school age and the study of the preschool age is insufficient. But in fact the most of the neurophysiologic and neuropsychological prerequisites referring to the children’s abilities to learn are forming during the preschool age. Therefore the fixing of norms and levels reflecting the neuropsychological development of preschoolers is an important issue. It has undisputable prognostic effect and would let the registration of cases of retardation of the basic psychic functions as indicators and predictors for further dyslexia about which there are conceptions defining it as a 18 Neli Vasileva: Dynamics of the Graphic Motor Skills in Pre-School Age Children (a Neuropsychological Evaluation) neurobiological based state of disordered development of some basic neuropsychic functions. When the readiness of preschoolers to school education is evaluated, the graphic motor skills and their development therewithal the cognitive processes could be considered as a basic point. The graphic motor skills are connected to the formation of the co-ordination between eyes and hands (visual-manual co-ordination) and they are also extremely important for the acquirement of written language. According to the investigation of some researchers and authors (Kornev, 1997; Kirkwood, Weiler et al.`s, 2001; Berg, 2003; McPhillips & Sheehy, 2004; Berninger, 2004; Berninger, Nielsen et al., 2008) there are results which show lower level and rates of implementation of some samples like fine finger movements (fine motor skills/ dexterity), redrawing of complex forms, graphic motor co-ordination and automatic writing in children with dyslexia in comparison to normally developing children. It is important to notice that the graphic motor skills depend on executive functions and both of them can be developed as a result of the maturity of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The term executive functions represents the abilities of conscious regulation of the behavior and the activities of the personalities. These abilities include the creation of aim, planning activities, control over the impulsiveness and purposeful searching for necessary objects and appropriate ways of action. According to the experimental data (Fincham, Carter, et al., 2002) the neural mechanisms, which provide the control and the planning of the behavior, engage frontal-parietal areas and especially the right dorsal lateral prefrontal cerebral cortex, bilateral parietal area and bilateral pre motor areas. The graphic motor skills are basic and intensively developing psychic component in preschool age. They can be interpreted as an indicator (among all the indicators) for prognostic identification of further learning difficulties. This attitude is confirmed by some authors who present results of their researches and these investigators enhance the connection between motor skills and especially the graphic motor skills and the symptoms of dyslexia. Augur (1985) (quotation according to Nicolson & Fawcett, 1994) states that many parents who have children with dyslexia mention about some difficulties in acquisition of motor skills in their children during the early childhood. Viholainen and co-authors (2006) present experimental data which confirm that the deficits in reading are connected to the low rate of motor development of the children. The same authors discuss the correlation between delayed motor development and expressive language abilities. McPhillips and Sheehy (2004) investigate children with family history and predisposition to dyslexia and find persistence of motor difficulties and also of some basic asymmetric primitive reflexes. The motor disorders most often refer to hard co-ordination and difficulties in the general motor abilities and the fine motor skills. The authors pay special attention to the condition of visual – motor co-ordinations which are defined as a co-morbid indicator for the identification of dyslexia and have a prime importance for the formation and the automation of writing skills. Semenova and co-authors (2007) state that pupils who have learning difficulties, show obvious delay in the development of the executive functions, which undergo some qualitative transformations in preschool and primary school age. The same authors point out that this time coincides with the acceleration of the speed of the growth of the associative layers in the frontal cerebral cortex. The expanding of the volume and the density of the neuronal networks is also typical during this stage. The age from 2 until 3 years old is considered as a critical period for the development of the executive functions while there are many significant changes in morphological level according to different possibilities for interaction between frontal cerebral cortex and other cortical and under cortical areas. The flexible switch over from one way of action to the another one becomes possible in the age from 4 until 4,5 years of age and the complete perfection in these operations would not be achievable for a long time further. The functions which provide adequate programs and self-control of the behavior are not matured enough in 6 years old children in the eve of the beginning of their school education and some kind of stabilization comes not earlier than the age of 9. According to EEG data some significant changes of bioelectric brain activation in the period 5 – 8 years of age are registered which is considered as an indicator for functional maturity of frontal thalamic regular system. It means also that there is an influence of the frontal cerebral cortex to other cortical areas (Machinskaia, Luckashevich, Fishman, 1997). Kornev (1997) examined a big group of dyslexics and evaluate the levels and the rates of some neuropsychological parameters like lateralization of senso-motor functions, visual-space orientation and the abilities of the children to depict forms and to write graphic signs. Kornev defines these deficits like gnomic pathology as a form of dyslexia and explains them enhancing the dysfunctions of the complex forms of visual-motor co-ordinations – “...the deficit of depicting and graphic abilities has a significant role for pathogenesis of dyslexia especially during the stage of acquisition of the representation of the phonemes through the letters and letter combinations” (Kornev, 1997, p.96). All the mentioned facts infer the determinative importance of the motors deficits for the genesis of dyslexia and underline the necessity of diagnosis of graphic skills of the children before their involvement in primary school. Moreover the evaluation of the graphic motor skills is an important task because of the very often encountered combination of reading and writing problems within the syndrome of dyslexia. Therefore in the last years there is a joining between neuropsychological approaches and the traditional approaches used by speech and language therapists about the writing disorders (Akhutina, Babaeva & co-authors, 2008). Akhutina and her collaborators establish three forms of International Journal of Psychology and Cognitive Science 2015; 1(2): 17-23 19 dysgraphia, based on the complex investigation. These forms are called – regulative dysgraphia, acoustic-articulate dysgraphia and visual-spatial dysgraphia. All of them are as a result of main deficits in some cortical functions. The topic of the current study refers to the regulative dysgraphia which is a consequence of delayed development of the pre motor areas of the frontal lobe where the programs and the control of writing actions are located. The symptoms of regulative dysgraphia are simplification of the program and inert repetition of some particular elements. In fact the act of writing depends on the ability of the individual to plan consciously the operations and to follow the succession of the elements of the program. The presented theoretical paradigms and the empirical data highlight the necessity of experimental probation and evaluation of the condition of graphic motor skills of preschoolers. The aim of this enquiry is the establishment of indicators and norms reflecting the ability for acquirement and implementation of graphic motor programs. The knowledge of the stage of the normal development and the dynamic of graphic motor manner is an important prognostic indicator for successful education. As it was mentioned the level of graphic skills depends on the condition of the executive functions and in fact the formation of graphic motor habit and the connected to it serial succession and organization of the actions are key point in the neuropsychological development in the preschoolers and the pupils of primary school age. On the other hand the deficits in this area can be identified like one of the predicting signs remarking probable further occurrence of dyslexia. 2. Organization of the Research Aim. The aim of the research is the probation with a neuropsychological sample of the current condition and the dynamic of graphic motor skills in preschoolers. The children are parted into three groups according to the their age – 4 years old preschoolers, 5 years old and 6 years old preschoolers. Hypothesis: 1. A significant influence on the graphic motor skills it is expected from the “age” factor considering the active processes of neurophysiological maturity of the brain areas which provide them. 2. A significant influence of the factors “place of residence” and “gender” upon graphic motor skills of the children is expected. Method and procedure. The method used is called “Graphic test”, from the section “Serial organization of the movements” which is a part of Neuropsychological diagnostic battery for children (Akhutina, Polonskaia & co-authors, 2008). The probe evaluates possibility for acquisition of graphic-motor program, its’ automatization, the switching from one movement to another, as well as the condition of visual –motor co-ordinations. The examination is made individually by giving a sheet of paper with a graph model from two repetitive elements, which are to be continued by the child. The most important demand is that the child must not break off the outlining and the movement of their hand while drawing. The maximum scores are 14 and the quantitative evaluation of the individual results is based on the next criteria: serial organization, programming and control, visual spatial functions, breaking off, muscle tonus. The results are elaborated according to Fcriterion which is estimated through tri-factor dispersion analysis. The confidence of the differences is established through tcriterion of Student. Target group. 365 children are involved in the study, categorized into three groups 4 years old (116), 5 years old (128) 6 years old (121) and according to residence from capital, big cities or small towns. The selection of the examined children is made by chance, but according to the condition that they do not have any disorders in their development. The proportion between the both genders – males and females is almost counterbalanced there is an insignificant prevalence of the boys. Results and discussion. The dispersion analysis reveals statistically significant influence on graphic motor skills of the children and this influence is evoked by all the fixed factors – “age”, “place of residence” and “gender”. A correlation between the factors “age” and “place of residence” is also established (table 1). The presented data confirms the suppositions within the formulated hypotheses. Table 1. A table of the dispersion according to the test “Graphic sample”. Test “Graphic sample” Rating SS Degr. of Freedom MS F p Intercept 23560.37 1 23560.37 3007.308 0.000000 Age 754.35 2 377.17 48.143 0.000000 Place of residence 107.31 2 53.66 6.849 0.001211 Gender 32.96 1 32.96 4.207 0.041004 Age *Place of residence 151.47 4 37.87 4.834 0.000835 Age*Gender 1.96 2 0.98 0.125 0.882611 Place of residence*Gender 1.88 2 0.94 0.120 0.886800 Age*Place of residence*Gender 40.08 4 10.02 1.279 0.277865 Error 2710.69 346 7.83 20 Neli Vasileva: Dynamics of the Graphic Motor Skills in Pre-School Age Children (a Neuropsychological Evaluation) Figure 1. The influence of the factor “age” on the graphic motor skills. The most influential factor is the factor ‘age” (p<0.000, F=48.143). Its profile demonstrates a regular increase of the rating from 4 to 6 (Figure 1). Meanwhile in addition to the investigation of the main effect of the influence of the age, the confidence of the differences of the mean ratings is established through the statistical Duncan’s test (table 2). It is clear that the differences between each two means in this configuration are statistically significant. This is an evidence that there is an important dynamic of the development of the ability for acquisition of serial graphic movement from 4 till 6 years age. The analysis of the results reveals some particularities in the development of kinetic organization of the movements which depend on the maturation tempo of pre motor area in the frontal lobe in the left hemisphere. In fact the development of the serial organization of the movements is an important component of the general formation of psychic functions and especially speech activity (spoken and written). Table 2. The confidence of the differences in mean ratings of the three groups of children according to the test Graphic sample. Age {1} – 6.4087 {2} – 8.7717 {3} – 10.918 1 4 years old 0.0000091 0.000011 2 5 years old 0.000009 0.000009 3 6 years old 0.000011 0.000009 There is a significant influence on the crude rating of the graphic sample related to the factor “place of residence” (p<0.001, F=6.849), which is on account of the high rates of the children who are from the big cities (figure 2). The test of Duncan shows statistically significant differences between the 1 The numerals indicating statistical significance are bolded in all the tables. children living in the capital in the big cities, and between children from big cities small towns, but however a lack of differences between children living in the capital and children from small towns (table 3). Table 3. The confidence of the differences from the mean ratings of the test Graphic sample according to the answers of the children having different