Associations Between Gross Motor Coordination and Executive Functions: Considering the Sex Difference in Chinese Middle-Aged School Children

Abstract

Considering that motor and cognitive processes are intertwined and inhibit or help each other throughout life and that primary school age is one of the most critical stages of children's cognitive and motor development, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between executive functions and gross motor skills in Chinese children aged 9–10 years, as well as gender differences. The flanker task, the 1-back task, the more-odd shifting task, and the test of gross motor coordination (Körperkoordinationtest für Kinder) were used to collect data on executive functions and gross motor coordination. The results were as follows. First, there was a weak association between gross motor coordination and the inhibition reaction time in the congruent test and the reaction time of working memory (r = −0.181 to −0.233), but no association was found between gross motor coordination and cognitive flexibility. Second, a weak-to-moderate correlation was presented between the move sideways test and the inhibition reaction time in the congruent test and the reaction time in the refreshing test of the working memory (r = −0.211 to −0.330). Finally, gender influenced on the relationship between gross motor coordination and the reaction time of both inhibition (βGender = −0.153, p < 0.05) and working memory (βGender = −0.345, p < 0.01). To conclude, our results suggest that children with better motor coordination skills require less reaction time, especially girls, and this association was more substantial than in boys. The finding supports the current assertion that there are commonalities between gross motor coordination and cognitive control by showing the relationship between gross motor coordination and complex cognitive processes (executive function) in preadolescent children.

Associations between Gross and Fine Motor Skills, Physical Activity, Executive Function, and Academic Achievement: Longitudinal Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

“…Our results suggest that only infant GM skills, not FM skills, were related to later EF, specifically SWM reaction time. The significant GM/EF relationships found in this study are consistent with prior research that suggested a closer link between GM ability and working memory, particularly visuospatial working memory, and that this association becomes more robust when processing speed is taken into account [18,19,21,22,24,75,76]. This lends support to our expectation that earlier maturation of the motor system confers a favorable and lasting effect on later EF.…”

“…Gross motor (GM) skills refer to movement involving large muscle groups, whereas fine motor (FM) skills refer to movement involving small muscle groups. A series of cross-sectional studies conducted on children from diverse age groups and ethnic backgrounds have consistently reported that GM ability is positively linked to EF in children [18][19][20][21]. In comparison, research examining the specific roles of FM skills in EF development is scarce, and the available results are contradictory [22,23].…”

Reliability and validity of the Körperkoordinationstest Für Kinder in Chinese children

“…The KTK has undergone reliability and validity tests in several countries, including Germany ( Kiphard & Schilling, 2007 ), Brazil ( Draghi, Cavalcante Neto & Tudella, 2020 ; Moreira et al, 2019 ), and Belgium ( Coppens et al, 2021 ), and is used extensively to assess the motor coordination of typically-developing children ( Iivonen, Kaarina Sääkslahti & Laukkanen, 2015 ; Vandorpe et al, 2010 ). Although the psychometric structure of the KTK was found to be similar across studies, different raw scores were reported in different countries ( Bardid et al, 2015 ; Liu, Chen & Cai, 2022 ). For example, evidence showed that Chinese children (9–10 years) had a lower level of motor coordination than Australian and Belgian children (6–8 years) ( Liu, Chen & Cai, 2022 ).…”

“…Although the psychometric structure of the KTK was found to be similar across studies, different raw scores were reported in different countries ( Bardid et al, 2015 ; Liu, Chen & Cai, 2022 ). For example, evidence showed that Chinese children (9–10 years) had a lower level of motor coordination than Australian and Belgian children (6–8 years) ( Liu, Chen & Cai, 2022 ). Notably, there was no analysis performed to determine whether the KTK’s lack of reliability and validity in Chinese children contributed to the difference in the raw scores.…”

Associations Between Motor Competence and Executive Functions in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Cognitive flexibility was most often assessed using the mixed flanker task[54,56,62,72], the trail-making task[50,51,71,88], and the dimensional change card sort test[52,75,80]. The digit span test[55,60,63,64,71,78,83,84,86,91] and N-back tasks[47,54,56,57,81,87] were the most common measures of working memory. A list of the executive function measures used in the included studies can be found in TableS3(OSM).…”