Developing manipulative skills of children with severe intellectual disabilities, using drawing and painting

Abstract

There is a relatively small body of research on the motor performance of children with severe intellectual disabilities. Adequate levels of motor skills may contribute to lifelong enjoyment of physical activity, participation in sports and healthy lifestyles. This paper is An attempt to examine current practices of developing the manipulative skills of children with severe intellectual disabilities with the view to accurately analyzing, categorizing, documenting and coming up with areas of best practices. This study explores the role of drawing and painting in developing the manipulative skills of children with severe intellectual disabilities. It was also aimed to address the role of the teacher in teaching drawing and painting and the significant role of drawing and painting in the development of the manipulative skills of children with severe intellectual disabilities. It was also to observe their experience in drawing and painting and other activities such as combing of hair and lacing of shoes. The data gathered from the beginning till the end helped to determine the effectiveness of the study. The findings were that most of the children with severe intellectual disabilities could not hold drawing tools appropriately and join the broken lines correctly and paint within a given space correctly. At the end of the exercise, the subjects were able to grab the drawing tools correctly, join broken line, and also coloured all boxes correctly. This study highlights the importance of improving motor skill performance in children with severe intellectual disabilities, and the results support the notion that the level of motor and cognitive functioning are related in children with severe intellectual disabilities.