The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceptual motor training on the learning readiness skills of young children with mental retardation and their learning readiness subfactors including motor perception, visual perception and hear...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceptual motor training on the learning readiness skills of young children with mental retardation and their learning readiness subfactors including motor perception, visual perception and hearing perception. Among the learning readiness subfactors, number concept was excluded. The subjects in this study were three selected young children with mental retardation, who were in a special class of a kindergarten affiliated to S elementary school in the city of C, where this researcher has worked. There was nothing wrong with their motor skills, and a perceptual-motor training program was conducted in 40 sessions for eight weeks, five times a week, 40 minutes each. They got group or separate training in one or two sporting events in every session after school in classroom or playground.
After pretest, posttest and retention test were implemented, the test results were compared to their original scores and translated into percentage. And their families were asked to give information on what change they showed at home to produce more accurate results. The findings of the study were as follows:
First, the perceptual-motor training had a positive effect on the motor perception of the mentally retarded young children, one of the learning readiness subareas.
Second, the perceptual-motor training was effective in improving the visual perception of the mentally retarded young children, one of the learning readiness subareas.
Third, the perceptual-motor training didn't have any significant impacts on the hearing perception of the mentally retarded preschoolers, one of the learning readiness subareas.
Based on the above-mentioned findings, the following conclusion was reached:
First, the perceptual-motor training had a favorable impact on the learning readiness skills of the mentally retarded preschoolers. in detail, they made the best progress in motor perception, and their visual and hearing perception also improved. But their hearing perception didn't make a significant progress, which indicated the perceptual-motor training exercised little influence on their hearing perception.
Second, the perceptual-motor training had a bigger effect on the child who could communicate with his teacher and had higher interest in the given tasks. The child who underwent the biggest change became more spontaneous and positive, though he was very passive in the beginning. This fact implied that the perceptual-motor training could serve to improve his learning readiness skills and favorably affect his sociability at the same time.
Third, their hearing perception that changed the least was closely linked to their intelligence. After the experiment was conducted, whether or not there were any changes in their attention, physical/verbal imitation and following directions was observed in class, and they made a favorable change in those regards. Furthermore, that training could exercise a positive influence on strengthening their ties with peers.