2009 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 123-131
Thread-tying tests and questionnaire surveys were conducted on 247 boys and 271 girls in elementary schools from July to November, 2007. The questionnaires asked the participants' about their frequency in engaging in play, their confidence towards play, their study preferences, and their consciousness towards making things by hand. We analyzed how their skill or lack of skill in using their fingers and hands was related to the results of the questionnaires. The results were as follows: (1) The mean number of knots made in a five-minute thread-tying test was 6.4 for boys and 10.2 for girls, showing a significant difference between boys and girls. Comparing these results with the previous results in 1995, skillfulness in fingers and hands among elementary-aged children appears to be declining. (2) Boys and girls with abundant indoor play experience tended to have higher skillfulness in fingers and hands. As their degree of confidence towards play using their hands declined compared with the results in 1995, a change in the way they play can be considered as one of the reasons for their decline of their skillfulness in fingers and hands. (3) Boys and girls with higher skillfulness in fingers and hands tended to like studies which require the use of their hands and other studies that require repetition. This tendency is more prominent among girls. (4) Sewing seems to have a mutual relationship with skillfulness in fingers and hands, abundant play experience, preference towards studies using the fingers and hands, and consciousness towards making things by hand. Therefore, it can be suggested that sewing studies can nurture positive attitudes towards various other kinds of learning and activities using the hands, as well as develop skillfulness in fingers and hands.
