Relational Climate and Fine Motor Adaptation: A Qualitative Descriptive Study in an Integrated Islamic Kindergarten
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62730/syaikhuna.v17i2.7832Keywords:
Early childhood education, Fine motor skills, Finger painting, Islamic kindergarten, Qualitative descriptive study, Sensory-based learningAbstract
Fine motor development during early childhood underpins later academic achievement and daily functioning, yet many children enter kindergarten with limited finger control and hand–eye coordination. Sensory-based activities such as finger painting are widely used to stimulate these skills. Still, existing studies often treat the activity as context-independent and rarely examine how a classroom's relational climate shapes children's responses to sensory materials. This qualitative descriptive study addressed that gap by examining how finger painting was implemented within the routines of an integrated Islamic kindergarten and how the kindergarten's value-based climate conditioned children's engagement. Twelve children aged four to five years participated across four sessions, alongside two classroom teachers and the school principal. Data were collected through classroom observation, semi-structured interviews, and documentation of children's artwork, and were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Children initially hesitated because of the paint's unfamiliar texture, producing short, disconnected strokes and inconsistent pressure. Across sessions, their movements became more continuous and deliberate, pressure control became more consistent, and sustained attention lengthened. Teachers linked these changes to deliberate practices of patience, modeling, and predictable religious routine rather than to the paint alone. The study argues that the effectiveness of a sensory medium cannot be assessed in isolation from the value-based ecosystem in which it is embedded, and it offers a framework linking relational climate, self-regulation, and motor adaptation.
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