Comparison of fine motor development in urban and rural nursery school children in Semnan

Introduction: The goal of this study was to compare of fine motor development in urban and rural preschool children. Materials and Methods: Ninety-seven normal pre-school children participated in this study (n=97), including 57 urban and 40 rural children, (n1=57, n2=40). To assess fine motor skills 6 evaluation methods were used, the assessments were: scissoring a direct line and a curve, moderate movement tests, coloring in by pencils, difficult fine motor test and dotting. For analysis of data t test was used to determine significant differences between the two groups (urban and rural). Results: In the two assessment methods, difficult fine motor test and dotting, there was significant differences between the two groups showing rural children had more success in doing the tasks. In the other four evaluation methods, there were no significant differences between the two groups. Conclusion: Rural children had more success to carry out fine motor skills when compared to urban children, requiring revision of educational pre-school programme especially in the field of motor skills.