Physical Factors: Muscle Control
Muscle Control
Muscle Control Dysfunction
(Articulo-Grapho-Motor Disco-Ordination Syndrome)
Many students experience muscle control difficulties such as those with physical exceptionalities
such as Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Spina Bifida, Spinal chord injury, Traumatic Brain
Injury, Tourettes.
Many learning disabled students may also exhibit muscle control difficulties but they are not as
evident as in the students with physical disabilities. The muscle control difficulties in learning
disabled students may appear to be relatively minor but they can have a pervasive and
debilitating effect on a student's difficulty to achieve.
Example of muscle control dysfunction
See the stories of Steve and Dixon -These are examples of students with poor muscle control.
Both of these students are high school students. Both had difficulty colouring inside the lines in
kindergarten, poor handwriting from early years (this is usually reported as improving as in '
John's handwriting is improving' which really means that it was not so good to start with! In fact
without effective intervention it does not improve.)
These student have problems with learning motor actions and with the sensory-motor feed back.
Both of these students are highly intelligent, scoring in the above average to gifted range but
were identified as Behaviourally Exceptional and in Applied courses because of their non
compliance in completing written assignments. Many of these students complain that their hands
get physically sore and tired.
How does Small Muscle Control effect learning?
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Production and appearance of written work both the quantity and the quality.
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Copying notes from the board.
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Can affect speech production - articulation including Apraxia which may look like
stuttering.
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Student may be clumsy and socially inept.
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Young children have difficulty colouring inside of a line, or cutting with scissors.
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They may fall of climbing equipment when they suddenly lose muscle control.
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May be exacerbated with difficulties with memory - visual or motor. May have difficulty
controlling a pencil, using scissors, using a key board. These students may fail because
they do not hand in written work.
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Hand to eye co-ordination is also called visual motor ability.
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Physical Factors: Muscle Control
Large Muscle (May be Clumsy)
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May be socially inept because they bump into things and people, are not well coordinated in Phys. Ed, sports, catching a ball etc.
Accommodations for the Regular Class
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Reduce the amount they have to write. Stress quality rather than quantity.
Negotiate the amount of written work to be completed.
Give them extra time for written work. If you want them to copy the notes then give them
a copy (near point copying is easier than far point copying) and say that it must be done
over night. (You will be maintaining the same expectations ) or negotiate the amount they
are to do. Give students copies of notes that have to copied from the board.
Give students notes with words missing that they have to find and copy from the notes on
the board.
Have a supply of carbon paper available so that students can ask a friend to make a copy
or allow students to photocopy another student’s notes.
Teach students how to use verbal rehearsal to copy notes from the blackboard or
overhead. The look and say a phrase and repeat it as they write it down. They can use a
similar technique for spelling.
Computers may help increase legibility (but they may have as much difficulty with a key
board as with a pen and paper. There are modified keyboards that can be used.)
Try different pens. Some are more comfortable and improve writing.
Fountain pens help slow down but improve the grip and create a focus on the writing and
are a novelty.
Maximize the muscle control with practice - copying from a book. (Have they ever been
taught how to write neatly?) Verbal rehearsal sometime helps.... Up then down, then up
and around... for a p
May have problems manipulating the locks on a locker. Can use a key or a lock with
fewer turns.
Can use a voice activated computer if they can read.
These students may have difficulties in specific subject areas.
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Physical Factors: Muscle Control
Keyboarding
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Students have problems with co-ordinating what they read and putting this into a
computer.
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Students may have difficulty with the muscle control needed to keyboarding
Have difficulty learning to touch type (when they are not allowed to see the keyboard.) This is
exacerbated when it is compounded by poor visual memory.
Technical Subjects
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Students may have problems with tasks that involve eye-hand co-ordination.
It is interesting to note that sometimes students who have such small muscle control
difficulties may not have difficulty with art and drawing or with the manipulation of tools
such as using a screw driver. These types of tasks either involve additional large muscles
or do not require as much in terms specific details as is writing.
Extra Time
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(If a teacher feels that extra time for writing gives a student an unfair advantage, then
consider giving everyone extra time. If there are other students who could do better with
the extra time, then it is unfair to them that they are not also given this accommodation.)
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Students who are learning disabled can get extra time at universities and colleges.
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If time is really an essential factor in for example an exam then teach the learning
disabled student how to deal with this factor effectively. However, a rule of thumb can be
applied, - No teacher would insist that someone paralyzed from the neck down not only
write without the aid of a scribe, but do this within the time limit. The same should apply
to the learning disabled student with muscle control dysfunction.
Refer to Student Profile Model - Muscle Control Dysfunction
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Physical Factors: Muscle Control
Muscle Control Development
DEVELOPMENT- MOTOR - MUSCLE
Although muscle control functions develop rapidly and the chart given below may not appear
initially significant to teachers, if you see these functions have not developed by the time the
student enters grade 1, it is an indication of a significant issues which may have a pervasive
effect on written language production. Often students with these problems are seen as being not
as intelligent as they are, or when they do not hand in word, they appear unmotivated.
Occupational Therapy can help.
1- 4 weeks Motor - grasp reflex
Brain 60-70% development accomplished Lateralization - none
Motor supports head when in prone position. Weight is on elbows. Hands open, no grasp reflex.
By 4 Months - plays with rattle. Responds to sounds by head turns - eyes search for speaker
By 5 Months - Sits with support
By 6 Months - Sitting bends forward uses hand for support.
Grasp but no thumb apposition
By 8 Months - Stands holding on. Thumb apposition. Picks up pellet with fingers and thumb tips
By 10 Months - Creeps may take side steps holding on. Pulls to standing position
By 12 months - Walks when held. Walks on feet and hands. Mouthing of objects almost stopped
Scribbles imitatively with crayon
By 18 months - Motor: Grasp apprehension and release fully developed
Gait stiff. Creeps downstairs back wards. Has difficulty building 3 tower cubes
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By 2 Years - Runs but falls can quickly alternate between sitting and stance
Walks stairs up or down - one foot forward only. Builds 9 tower block
By 30 Months - Jumps into air with both feet. Stands on one foot for about two seconds
Takes steps on tip toe Jumps from chair. Good eye -hand coordination.
Can move digits independently
By 3 years - tiptoes three yards. Runs smoothly with acceleration and deceleration
Negotiates sharp and fast curves without difficulty. Walks stairs with alternate feet
Can operate tricycles. Hand preference has emerged.
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