Which step is most appropriate before seeking related services for a child with fine motor difficulties?

• A. Adapting classroom activities to accommodate fine motor difficulties
• B. Giving home activities for parents to work on
• C. Providing a paraprofessional to help develop fine motor skills
• D. Asking another teacher to provide a second opinion

Answer: (A)

Addressing the child’s barrier in the classroom first is essential. Adapting classroom activities to accommodate fine motor difficulties allows the student to access and participate in learning tasks with supports built into the regular instruction. This approach helps you gather practical, in-context data on whether the issue can be managed with modifications before moving to more specialized services. By providing alternatives such as larger-format paper, keyboarding or speech-to-text options, or reorganizing writing tasks, you can often reduce the demands that rely on fine motor skills and see how the student progresses with these adjustments.

Giving home activities for parents places responsibilities outside the school day and may not accurately reflect the student’s performance in the instructional setting, so it’s not the best initial step for determining need for related services. A paraprofessional can be helpful, but introducing that level of support typically follows after in-class accommodations have been tried and documented, as part of a broader plan if additional support remains necessary. Asking another teacher for a second opinion might be useful in some contexts, but it doesn’t directly address the student’s access to the current curriculum; the most immediate step is to implement at-school accommodations and monitor impact.