Motor skills that are learned but then drop off after a couple years of inactivity are known as:

• A. Fine motor skills
• B. Continuous motor skills
• C. Discrete motor skills
• D. Gross motor skills

Answer: (C)

Discreet motor skills are movements with a clear beginning and end. They’re learned as single, focused actions—like throwing a ball or flipping a switch—relying on a precise timing and coordination pattern. When practice stops for a long period, that specific pattern tends to fade, so the skill can drop off after years of inactivity without retraining. That explains why this description fits discrete skills best. Continuous skills, by contrast, have no distinct start or finish and are often kept up through ongoing activity, while serial skills are sequences of discrete actions. Fine versus gross describes the size of the movement, not how long the pattern lasts without practice.