Does neuromotor immaturity represents a risk for acquiring basic academic skills in school-age children?

Abstract

Background/Aim. Studies that investigated the presence of soft neurological signs in terms of neuromotor immaturity and impact on the ability of reading, writing and calculation are rare. At school age, cognitive development in children of the typical population is monitored over, while much less was focused on motor development. This is one of the important reasons for conducting this research. The aim of this study is to determine whether neuromotor immaturity of children poses a risk for the adoption of the basic academic skills in school children. Most authors investigated the presence of dysgraphia, dyslexia and dyscalculia in clinically diagnosed conditions. Methods. The data were obtained by testing. To assess neuromotor maturity, The Developmental Screening Test was used. The quality of handwriting was evaluated according to the criteria proposed by Simner and Eidlitz. Quality of reading skills is assessed by the Three-dimensional Reading Test. Evaluation of the presence of difficulties in numeracy was performed by a series of adapted tasks, taken from the Romanian Screening Instrument for Dyscalculia. Results. The sample was divided into two groups of pupils according to the results. The groups consisted of students with and without the presence of neuromotor immaturity. There was a significantly higher prevalence of students with difficulties in reading, writing and numeracy in the group of neuromotor immature students. Conclusion. The results clearly indicated that neuromotor immaturity of children represents a risk to the adoption of the basic academic skills in children in school age. We believe that the school age is very important time to monitor motor development of a child to the same extent as the cognitive development. In this way, we would have the opportunity to intervene on time and reduce a possibility of school failure. Wider studies in this area are urgently needed.

Enhancing Time Reading and Recording Skills in First-Grade Children with Learning Difficulties Using the “Clock Motor Game”

“…On the other hand, the presence of persistent primitive reflexes in school-aged children, indicating an immature neuromotor status, has been widely reported [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. This condition may impair cognitive skills' performance and could be a contributing factor to specific learning difficulties, such as RRT.…”

The Correlation between Residual Primitive Reflexes and Clock Reading Difficulties in School-Aged Children—A Pilot Study

“…To date, immature neuromotor status as identified by persistent primitive reflexes in children of school age has been shown to be elevated in children presenting with emotional and behavioural issues [26], children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) [27], visual processing difficulties [28], immature motor skills [29,30], relation to motor skills in pre-school children [10], motor skills in relation to school readiness [31], communication disorder [32], developmental language disorder [8], differences in school performance [13,33] and social disadvantage [34]. This broader spectrum of issues found to be present in conjunction with signs of neuromotor immaturity suggests that it may be a general underlying factor in a number of developmental disorders and specific learning difficulties.…”

A tool to profile neural, sensory and motor development in children at school entry, identifying possible barriers to learning and emotional well‐being in early childhood

“…Past and present theories of development reinforce the importance of sensorimotor skills, with pioneering developmental psychologist Piaget's four‐stage theory of development (1971) beginning with the sensorimotor stage, in which the infant learns about the world through their own senses and action; and the more recent theory of embodied cognition emphasising the role of sensory and motor functions in cognition itself (Foglia & Wilson, 2013). In addition to theory, an array of studies make links between sensorimotor skills and academic achievement (Ivanović et al, 2019; Lopes et al, 2013; Taanila et al, 2005), while variances and deviations in sensorimotor development are widely implicated in neurodiversities ranging from autism to dyscalculia (Babu & Sasikumar, 2019; Banaschewski et al, 2001; Dewey et al, 2002; Hannant et al, 2016; Torres & Whyatt, 2017; Yochman et al, 2006).…”