As part of their natural quest for motor mastery, children develop increasing control over the purposeful movements of their fingers. Through all sorts of art, writing, and handiwork, they strive to create products that bring forth praise and respect from their peers as well as adults. Two distinct pathways involved in motor mastery are fine motor function and graphomotor function. Graphomotor function is the motor pathway involved in creating written output, while fine motor function includes just about everything else fingers implement.

Fine Motor Function and Dysfunction
Children vary widely in the success they achieve with fine motor output. Most fine motor activity calls for the interpretation of visual information that guides the fingers; such eye: hand coordination that is used to thread a needle, fix the wheel on a skateboard, play videogames, and tie shoelaces. Some tasks require very rapid use of visual information, while others allow substantial time for processing the spatial inputs. Some fine motor pursuits demand significant memory, such as remembering how to use a computer, how to open a combination lock, how to use a particular tool, or how to play a specific melody on the viola.

Students with fine motor dysfunctions may have trouble with a range of pursuits that demand dexterity, such as coordinating their eyes with their finger movements, or getting their finger muscles operating with sufficient speed and precision. In some instances, there are gaps in a student's motor memory, or a child may have problems with motor planning (picturing or thinking about a motor act prior to initiating it), or implementation (getting the proper finger muscles to move the right way at the right moments).

Kids with fine motor problems may need extra practice while focusing on a single form of output (such as the piano or working with computer graphics). It is important to try to understand the nature of a student's dysfunction, so that activities can be selected that sidestep any weak link. For example, a particular student may succeed with activities that spare memory, allow more time, or involve less complicated muscle movements. Once a mode is chosen, kids and parents need to commit to the age old adage that "practice makes perfect"; nowhere is this truer than it is in the domain of fine motor function.

Parents, teachers, and the children themselves need to decide if a fine motor weakness merits repair. Not everyone needs to be a meritorious sculptor! Undoubtedly, the production of fine motor masterpieces or the repair of malfunctioning electronic devices can be enormously uplifting, as well a big boost for self-esteem. Fine motor triumphs can be especially valuable for kids who are not succeeding in one or more other areas of their school lives. In general it is very helpful for every student to find at least one mode of fine motor success.

Graphomotor Function and Dysfunction
Many students reject and denounce the act of writing because they are stymied by its intense motor demands. Written output must be rapid, in order to keep pace with the outflow of ideas and language. It must be precise, so that it's sufficiently legible. It must feel easy and automatic, so that a child can write, think, and remember things all at once.

Graphomotor dysfunction can deter writing in several different ways. Some thwarted writers have trouble picturing the letters they're trying to form, while others can't recall fast enough the muscle movements needed to make specific letter symbols. Kids with these problems generally prefer printing to cursive writing (and should be allowed to print). A number of students have problems assigning specific hand muscles to particular parts of letter formation. Many of them may have the same kinds of impairments in speaking and so have had a hard time pronouncing certain words. Still others can't seem to track the moment-to-moment location of their fingers while they are writing, a condition known as "finger agnosia." Many students with graphomotor deficiencies develop awkward pencil grips, which can make the motor aspects of writing even more of a chore.

When letter formation is slow, laborious, and unattractive, kids are apt to become frustrated and resistant. They may show a puzzling discrepancy between the sophistication of their thoughts orally and the simplicity of their ideas on paper. Their writing may be brief, poorly organized, and flawed in other respects (such as spelling and punctuation). It may be that so much effort is required for letter formation that other components of writing are seriously undermined or sabotaged.

Students with graphomotor problems need our help. First, they need to understand the sources of their writing agony. They must not be permitted to give up on writing. Their teachers temporarily may have to allow them to write a bit less than their peers and be tolerant of any inadequate legibility. At home, these children benefit from nightly writing practice (perhaps keeping a diary), careful choice of the best writing utensil, and early introduction to keyboarding. The latter can be initiated in a preliminary manner by the end of 2nd grade, but parents should not completely discard the act of writing. Students with graphomotor dysfunctions need to be developing their computer skills while still working to make their normal handwriting more fluent. Sometimes these children can benefit from consultation with an occupational therapist.

Many students reveal a sizable difference between their fine motor and graphomotor performance. For example, a child may be a wonderful artist or artisan yet display barely legible handwriting that takes too much work to generate. Adults need to be aware of the potential humiliation experienced by students whose fingers don't seem to work right when they write or draw. Such children need our support and sympathy rather than the frequent ridicule that so many of them endure for their problems.