{"id":4033,"date":"2018-05-08T15:03:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T15:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=4033"},"modified":"2018-05-08T15:03:51","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T15:03:51","slug":"motor-skill-proficiency-among-homeschooled-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=4033","title":{"rendered":"MOTOR SKILL PROFICIENCY AMONG HOMESCHOOLED CHILDREN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record:\u00a0<\/strong>Laura Spivey Kabiri, Katy Mitchell, Wayne Brewer, and Alexis Ortiz, “Motor Skill Proficiency Among Homeschooled Children,” in\u00a0Journal of Motor Learning and Development<\/em> 5, no. 2 (December 2017), pp. 336-345. [Abstract Here<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Summary:\u00a0<\/strong>Kabiri<\/a>, a professor in Houston Community College’s Physical Therapy Assistant program.\u00a0 Mitchell, Brewer, and Ortiz <\/a>are all on the faculty at the School of Physical Therapy at Texas Woman’s University.\u00a0 They combine forces here to provide the first study ever of homeschooled children’s gross and fine motor skills.<\/p>\n

The authors begin with a brief lit review establishing the benefits of gross and fine motor skills throughout the life course.\u00a0 They then note that homeschooled children have the potential to have both more and less opportunity for motor skill development than children who attend schools given the flexibility of their schedules.\u00a0 But which is it?\u00a0 Do homeschooled children receive on average more or less opportunity to develop motor skills as opposed to children who go to school?<\/p>\n

To find out the authors performed a cross-sectional study of homeschooled children in early elementary school.\u00a0 Families were recruited via email from various support groups, cooperatives, and word-of-mouth.\u00a0 The researchers were able to obtain a sample of 73 children between the ages of 5 and 8.\u00a0 The sample was 86% white, above average SES, all from intact marriages with the primary caregiver usually college-educated or more who was not working outside of the home.\u00a0 82% were a normal weight.\u00a0 \u00a0The researchers used the BOT-2 SF<\/a>, a standard instrument for measuring overall motor proficiency in children.\u00a0 Children were assessed in group settings like public parks or in the family’s home.<\/p>\n

The results of the testing were that homeschooled children on average performed “slightly above” the overall mean score for all children on the BOT-2 SF.\u00a0 The only variables measured that predicted significant differences in overall motor skills were number of hours participating in organized sports and primary caregiver’s employment status.\u00a0 Homeschooled children who participated in 3 or more hours per week of organized sports performed significantly better on the test than did those who did not, and those whose homeschooling teacher (usually mother) was not employed outside the home also did better.<\/p>\n

The conclusion reached is that “homeschooling has no detrimental effect on motor skill proficiency.” (p. 341)\u00a0 This was true regardless of the demographic profile of the homeschooler being measured.\u00a0 Though the sample had very few overweight children, the researchers were surprised that even the high-BMI homeschooled kids had normal motor function.<\/p>\n

The finding that it took at least 3 hours a week of organized sporting activity to produce measurable improvement is consistent with other research.\u00a0 Just once a week for an hour is not enough.\u00a0 Athletic participation needs to be frequent to register real gains.\u00a0 Finally, for the unemployed caregiver finding the authors offer the speculation that a full-time homemaker has the time, and frequently the resources, to enroll and transport her children to a lot of organized athletic opportunities.<\/p>\n

The researchers conclude by acknowledging the limits of their sample.\u00a0 It includes very few poor families or obese or overweight children, and it has no children raised by a single parent.\u00a0 Whether these factors affect motor skills cannot be determined by this study.<\/p>\n

Appraisal:<\/strong> This is a nice study to have on hand.\u00a0 Like other studies<\/a> occasionally performed by health professionals on homeschoolers, it has not uncovered anything particularly surprising.\u00a0 Yet again, homeschoolers end up looking pretty normal.\u00a0 As we say frequently in these reviews, the authors’ methodology of tapping into homeschooler networks to recruit participants by definition biases the sample toward the well-connected and well-resourced child with the kind of parent who would be likely to provide an environment that would foster healthy development.\u00a0 Would homeschoolers who are not part of networks exhibit less motor development?\u00a0 I doubt it, but we can’t really know so long as researchers continue to pick only the low-hanging fruit of homeschoolers who are easy to find because they’re part of networks.<\/p>\n

Milton Gaither, Messiah College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record:\u00a0Laura Spivey Kabiri, Katy Mitchell, Wayne Brewer, and Alexis Ortiz, “Motor Skill Proficiency Among Homeschooled Children,” in\u00a0Journal of Motor Learning and Development 5, no. 2 (December 2017), pp. 336-345. [Abstract Here] Summary:\u00a0Kabiri, a professor in Houston Community College’s Physical Therapy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[422],"tags":[1777,1781,1779,1778,1775,1774,1780,1776],"class_list":["post-4033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-alexis-ortiz","tag-bot-2-sf","tag-houston-community-college","tag-journal-of-motor-learning-and-development","tag-katy-mitchell","tag-laura-spivey-kabiri","tag-texas-womans-university","tag-wayne-brewer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4033"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4035,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4033\/revisions\/4035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}