Fine motor skills and early comprehension of the world: Two new school readiness indicators.

Abstract

Duncan et al. (2007) presented a new methodology for identifying kindergarten readiness factors and quantifying their importance by determining which of children's developing skills measured around kindergarten entrance would predict later reading and math achievement. This article extends Duncan et al.'s work to identify kindergarten readiness factors with 6 longitudinal data sets. Their results identified kindergarten math and reading readiness and attention as the primary long-term predictors but found no effects from social skills or internalizing and externalizing behavior. We incorporated motor skills measures from 3 of the data sets and found that fine motor skills are an additional strong predictor of later achievement. Using one of the data sets, we also predicted later science scores and incorporated an additional early test of general knowledge of the social and physical world as a predictor. We found that the test of general knowledge was by far the strongest predictor of science and reading and also contributed significantly to predicting later math, making the content of this test another important kindergarten readiness indicator. Together, attention, fine motor skills, and general knowledge are much stronger overall predictors of later math, reading, and science scores than early math and reading scores alone.

Early childhood television viewing and kindergarten entry readiness

“…The 29-mo televiewing predictor reflects a time of substantial brain growth in frontal regions recruited for effortful control processes (28,33,34). These characteristics are ultimately associated with child achievement (19)(20)(21) and personal success in adulthood (16). The association with diminished classroom engagement suggests that excessive early televiewing may not be beneficial for the development of executive functions during a critical period in brain growth.…”

“…From birth to age 5, these functions regulate and coordinate sensory processing and help in the retrieval of information from memory while children learn to engage behaviorally, read, write, do arithmetic, copy a shape, catch a ball, and jump rope (34,35). During the preschool years, motor skills strongly forecast cognitive skills and vice versa (20)(21)(22). This relationship is attributable to their common recruitment of the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and prefrontal cortex (20).…”

“…Specifically, more televiewing was linked with greater difficulty in performing athletic movements such as running and shuffling by age 6. Motor skills have recently regained attention as key elements of school readiness because they forecast better long-term reading and attentionrelated skills (20,21). In the first years of life, attention and motor skills recruit common sensory systems and cortical structures in the brain (28).…”

“…Several large-scale prospective longitudinal studies have sought to establish an empirically driven definition of what kindergarten factors matter the most for later achievement (19)(20)(21). The approach has generally included an exhaustive test of cognitive and behavioral characteristics that have been suggested by teaching professionals as important for being ready to learn.…”

“…The findings from these studies reveal that cognitive and attention skills show the most power in forecasting later math and reading achievement. Although they have long been neglected by researchers, motor skills have finally been acknowledged as important in forecasting math and reading achievement in later grades (20)(21)(22) and many successful preschool programs have included movement as a part of their curricula (23).…”