Bucks IU Receives $10,000 Grant from Foundations Community Partnership

The Bucks County Intermediate Unit has received a $10,000 grant that will be used by IU spe­cial­ists to help preschool and kinder­garten chil­dren at var­i­ous schools and oth­er edu­ca­tion­al facil­i­ties refine
their fine motor skills.

The grant was award­ed by the non­prof­it Foundations Community Partnership, a phil­an­thropic grant-making foun­da­tion sup­port­ing the behav­ioral health and human ser­vice needs of chil­dren and
young adults in Bucks County.

Specifically, the mon­ey will be used by IU occu­pa­tion and phys­i­cal ther­a­py spe­cial­ists to pur­chase age-appropriate fine motor cur­ric­u­la and to pro­vide the train­ing for the edu­ca­tion­al staff on how to suc­cess­ful­ly inte­grate and
imple­ment it in their class­rooms. The train­ing also includes ongo­ing week­ly sup­port to con­nect fine motor activ­i­ties with the cur­ric­u­la and
stu­dents’ indi­vid­ual needs, an IU news release said.

“Not only does the pro­gram help these stu­dents with their phys­i­cal devel­op­ment, but it also pro­vides them with an enor­mous boost in their
pos­i­tive self-esteem, a proven dri­ver in stu­dent aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess,” it said.
Fine motor skills are using small­er mus­cles like those in the hands, fin­gers and wrists for tasks like writ­ing, but­ton­ing cloth­ing, turn­ing pages, eat­ing,
cut­ting with scis­sors and using com­put­er keyboards.

The grant will also allow the IU to col­lab­o­rate with local occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py col­lege and uni­ver­si­ty pro­grams to sup­port set­ting up fine motor tool kits and cre­at­ing new edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als regard­ing fine motor devel­op­ment for teach­ers and staff.

The IU will also pro­vide fam­i­ly edu­ca­tion on how to sup­port fine motor devel­op­ment in young chil­dren through play in upcom­ing Fine Motor Fun Fair events that will be held in each of the three regions —low­er, mid­dle and upper — of the county.