People: Activity
People in Design
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As we mentioned, activities can be
considered from the two following
perspectives:
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Fine Motor Skill
Gross Motor Skill
People in Design
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Motor skills are motions carried out by the
body, Fine motor skills are small
movements – such as grabbing something
with your thumb and forefinger, whereas
Gross motor skills are the bigger
movements – such as running and jumping.
People: Activity – Fine Motor
Skills
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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Fine Motor Skills allow human beings to use
complex tools, and to grasp and hold objects
in a variety of ways.
Consider the simple example of picking up a
pen and repositioning it in your hand to write
with it, this requires a remarkable degree of
dexterity to achieve.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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Fine motor activities occur in almost every
single activity we do throughout the day.
Good fine motor skills stem from having
developed solid sensory, motor and
perceptual foundations, something which we
develop from birth and continue to develop
right throughout our life span.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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Types of Grips
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The Power Grip
The Pinch Grip
The Support Grip
The External Precision Grip
The Internal Precision Grip
The Ulnar Storage Grip
The Stretching Grip
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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The Power Grip
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Also called the Crush Grip
This is what is most commonly thought of as
"grip". It involves a handshake-type grip, where
the object being gripped rests firmly against the
palm and all fingers.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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The Pinch Grip
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This is where the fingers are on one side of an
object, and the thumb is on the other. Typically,
an object lifted in a pinch grip does not touch the
palm.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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The Support Grip
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Also called the Hook Grip
This typically involves holding something, such as
the handle of a bucket, for a long time.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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The External Precision Grip
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This is like a pinch grip, but the instrument is held
in the cleft of the thumb and supported at the
meeting of the thumb and the index finger.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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The Internal Precision Grip
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Here the instrument is held by the tips of the
thumb, index and middle fingers. The hand is
steadied by the little finger edge of the hand and
perhaps knuckles resting or moving on the work
surface, or against the other hand.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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The Ulnar Storage Grip
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This is where the little finger and ring finger hold
on object, and the rest of the fingers are free to do
other things. For example, holding a drinking
glass in the other three fingers, and a bottle by
the top with an ulnar storage grip.
People in Design - Fine Motor
Skills
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The Stretching Grip
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This grip involves stretching a limp material using
the index and middle finger on one side and the
thumb, ring finger, and little finger on the other.
Fine Motor Skills Tests (1 of 3)
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Perdue Pegboard Test
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This measures two types of activities: gross
movements of hands, fingers and arms, and
"fingertip" dexterity in an assembly task. Involves
sequential insertion of pegs and assembly of
pegs, collars and washers.
Fine Motor Skills Tests (2 of 3)
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Complete Minnesota Dexterity Test
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This measures simple hand-eye coordination and
gross motor skills. It consists of a battery of five
tests: Placing, Turning, Displacing, One-Hand
Turning and Placing and Two-Hand Turning and
Placing.
Fine Motor Skills Tests (3 of 3)
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EpicRehab Hand Function Sort
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This is a 62-item questionnaire that quantifies the
disabled person’s perception of ability to perform
work tasks that involve the hands and upper
extremities
People: Activity – Gross Motor
Skills
People in Design
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Reach
Reach (or arm span) is the measure of
maximum distance that a person can stretch
their arms apart from each other, and it is
measured from fingertip to fingertip.
It is usually close to a person’s height.
People in Design
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Locomotion
Human locomotion is also a highly complex
process, and includes things such as
walking, running, swimming, and jumping.
These processes require a combination of
energy, balance, and structural support.
People in Design
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Locomotion
A key variable in gait is foot strike.
We generally classify foot strike in one of
three ways:
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forefoot strike –ball of foot lands first
midfoot strike – heel and ball land simultaneously
heel strike –heel of foot lands first
People in Design
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Locomotion
Gait is the specific term we use for
locomotion when discussing a human.
So we say that gait is the way locomotion is
achieved using human limbs.