Enhancing Fine Motor Skills through Plasticine Media with Nusantara-Themed Variations in Early Childhood

Abstract

Fine motor competence during early childhood supports manipulation, self-care, emergent writing, and broader school-readiness skills. This study examined whether structured plasticine activities enriched with varied Nusantara themes could improve fine motor performance among children at RA Raudlotul Hidayah Sindang Laut. A quantitative quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control-group design was modeled with 83 children aged 5-6 years. Forty-two children participated in a seven-week intervention consisting of 21 plasticine sessions, while 41 children followed regular classroom art and manipulative activities. The intervention progressively trained pinching, rolling, flattening, twisting, joining, bilateral manipulation, visual-motor precision, and hand-eye coordination through representations of Indonesian flora and fauna, traditional houses, batik motifs, traditional foods, musical instruments, and maritime icons. Fine motor performance was assessed using a 40-point performance rubric. Synthetic results showed comparable baseline scores between the intervention and control groups (20.88 ± 3.47 vs. 20.39 ± 3.53; p = .525). Posttest scores increased to 28.86 ± 4.85 in the intervention group and 25.27 ± 4.50 in the control group. The mean gain difference was 3.10 points (95% CI [1.75, 4.45], p < .001), with a large standardized effect (Cohen's d = 1.00). ANCOVA controlling for baseline performance confirmed a significant intervention effect, F(1,80) = 20.43, p < .001, partial eta squared = .203. These modeled findings suggest that culturally contextualized plasticine activities may provide repeated, motivating opportunities for precise hand and finger movements while simultaneously introducing children to Indonesian cultural diversity. Field replication using verified participant data and a validated fine motor assessment is required before substantive causal or generalizable claims are made.