Abstract
Fine motor skills have long been recognized as an important foundation for development in other domains. However, more precise insights into the role of fine motor skills, and their relationships to other skills in mediating early educational achievements, are needed to support the development of optimal educational interventions. We explored concurrent relationships between two components of fine motor skills, Fine Motor Precision and Fine Motor Integration, and early reading and maths development in two studies with primary school children of low-to-mid socio-economic status in the UK. Two key findings were revealed. First, despite being in the first 2 years of primary school education, significantly better performance was found in reading compared to maths across both studies. This may reflect the protective effects of recent national-level interventions to promote early literacy skills in young children in the UK that have not been similarly promoted for maths. Second, fine motor skills were a better predictor of early maths ability than they were of early reading ability. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that fine motor skills did not significantly predict reading ability when verbal short-term memory was taken into account. In contrast, Fine Motor Integration remained a significant predictor of maths ability, even after the influence of non-verbal IQ had been accounted for. These results suggest that fine motor skills should have a pivotal role in educational interventions designed to support the development of early mathematical skills.
Highlights
Converging evidence from neuroimaging studies, brain-lesioned patients, and developmental disorders suggests a fundamental interrelation between motor and cognitive development
Fine Motor Integration was shown to be a significant predictor for reading but when Mathematical Reasoning was taken into account Fine Motor Integration no longer significantly predicted reading performance. Both Fine Motor Integration and Fine Motor Precision significantly predicted maths ability, but the contribution of Fine Motor Integration was no longer significant when Word Reading was taken into account. These results suggests some degree of overlap between Fine Motor Integration and Word Reading and Mathematical Reasoning, which might arise from each of these skills drawing to some extent, at least, on visuo-spatial processes
The evidence that there can be significant pockets of delay in maths attainment relative to literacy, in low socio-economic status (SES) groups, and that Fine Motor Integration can be closely related to maths outcomes enhances the argument for a closely focused early years maths curriculum, potentially with a strong enactive and spatial training element, to support visual-motor integration skills
Summary
Converging evidence from neuroimaging studies, brain-lesioned patients, and developmental disorders suggests a fundamental interrelation between motor and cognitive development (see Diamond, 2000, for a review). When gross measures of motor and cognitive skills are considered, results from across several studies produce inconsistent findings as to the extent and significance of the relationship between motor and cognitive development (e.g., Wassenberg et al, 2005; Roebers and Kauer, 2009; Davis et al, 2011; Jenni et al, 2013). The authors concluded that the link between motor and cognitive domains could be explained by relationships between fine motor skills and higherorder cognitive skills. This corroborates the results of Davis et al (2011), who found that fine motor skills and visual attention underpinned the more generic association between motor and cognitive domains
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