The notion of motor skills refers to the ability of an organism to generate movement or to move. The concept also refers specifically to the central nervous system's ability to cause muscle contractions.
Motor skills can be understood as the control of the body by people. The human being is not only in a position to reproduce movements, but can express his intention creatively or spontaneously.
It is possible to differentiate between gross motor skills and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills refer to general coordination and larger movements; fine motor skills, to movements that require greater dexterity and precision. Throughout the development of the body and mind, fine motor skills are achieved after gross motor skills, since it requires adequate coordination of the actions carried out by different muscle groups.
In short, motor skills are not the same as movement. A movement is a motor action that leads to change the position of a body component or the body in general. Motor skills encompass all the functions and processes involved in movement, including the mental factor.
The central nervous system, joints, and muscles participate in voluntary movements. Through a learning process, children develop motor skills from birth, gradually acquiring skills such as standing or walking. They first display gross motor skills and then, once they reach the necessary maturity and physical growth, fine motor skills. To promote these processes, it is important that children engage in physical activity and are stimulated by adults.
The motor problems are framed in the so-called motor deficiency, which manifests itself through a disorder in the locomotor system, which is formed by the muscular and osteoarticular systems. A person with a problem of this type may show difficulty in performing common tasks, such as taking a pen and writing, or in moving, coordinating certain movements or maintaining a firm posture.
The accuracy of movement is one of the faculties that affects motor impairment, and this can be very serious in our time, since almost all our daily activities, both in the field of leisure and in work and student, require a lot of precision. In some cases, motor problems also affect speech and cause an abnormal reduction in muscle strength.
* Peripheral physical: affect the joints, muscles, bones and extremities;
* neurological: there is damage to the brain that interferes with the sending of motor information to the rest of the body.
These motor disorders can originate before, during, or after birth. In the first group, an infection or a metabolic disease usually occurs that affects the mother because of the blood incompatibility with the father. During delivery, the appearance of a motor deficiency can be due to a lack of oxygen for too long (sometimes caused by an obstruction in the baby's nostrils), prematurity, or damage to the skull from the use of forceps.
With regard to cases that begin after birth, some of the most common causes are brain hemorrhage, meningitis, or thrombosis.