Fine Motor Skills Predict Maths Ability Better than They Predict Reading Ability in the Early Primary School Years

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.

Relationships between Motor Proficiency and Academic Performance in Mathematics and Reading in School-Aged Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

“…In studies analysing correlations between fine motor integration and mathematics performance, six studies [48,52,55,57,58,63] reported significant very weak to weak associations (r = 0.16−0.38), seven studies [49,53,56,58,60,64,71] reported moderate associations (r = 0.417−0.59), and two studies [56,64] reported a strong association (r = 0.612−0.673). The one study [45] that did not report a significant association between fine motor integration and mathematics performance was the only study conducted with high school participants.…”

“…In relation to the strength of correlations between variables reported, 10 studies [48,52,53,55,58,63,81,83,85,87] found very weak to weak correlations (r = 0.163–0.38), six studies [39,58,59,71,81,88] found moderate associations (r = 0.40–0.47), and two studies [60,71] reported a strong correlation (r = 0.60–0.62). A total of 11 [48,52,54,55,58,60,69,81,83,85,86] of the 17 studies reporting significant associations had fair-to-good methodological quality.…”

Can Touch Screen Tablets be Used to Assess Cognitive and Motor Skills in Early Years Primary School Children? A Cross-Cultural Study

“…These cognitive and motor measures were chosen because of their close association with the development of fundamental scholastic skills, such as mathematics and literacy (e.g., Nunes et al, 2007; Berg, 2008; Mulder et al, 2010; Westerndorp et al, 2011; Bourke et al, 2014; Simms et al, 2014; Pitchford et al, 2016). Accordingly, a measure of scholastic skill - mathematics - that is taught from the start of formal schooling in both Malawi and the UK was also included to cross-validate the new assessment tool.…”

How do different aspects of spatial skills relate to early arithmetic and number line estimation?

“…Moreover, the influence of early VMI for later academic achievement has been empirically supported (Becker, Miao, Duncan, & McClelland, 2014;Cameron et al, 2012Cameron et al, , 2015Carlson, Rowe, & Curby, 2013;Grissmer, Grimm, Aiyer, Murrah, & Steele, 2010). Studies considering VMI and non-motor spatial skills concurrently report that both constructs are associated with and/or are predictive of better performance in mathematics (Carlson et al, 2013;Pieters et al, 2012;Pitchford et al, 2016;Sortor & Kulp, 2003).…”

“…Classically, tasks of spatial perception, mental rotation and spatial visualization, require the treatment of visual information, while tasks of VMI involve the coordination between the treatment of visual input and motor output (Cameron et al, 2015). Empirical research on the relation between mathematics and spatial skills suggests considering VMI when studying this relationship in young children (Carlson, Rowe, & Curby, 2013;Pieters, Desoete, Roeyers, Vanderswalmen, & Van Waelvelde, 2012;Pitchford, Papini, Outhwaite, & Gulliford, 2016;Sortor & Kulp, 2003). In the following, VMI will be considered as an aspect of spatial skills (in line with Frostig, Lefever, & Whittlesey, 1961 …”