Motor Development Has a Positive Correlation to Academic Performance in School Children

Abstract

Some studies have investigated the association between motor development and cognitive skills. The present study aims to correlate motor development and academic performance in 79 students between 7 to 9 years old from a private school in São Paulo-Brazil. We used the Movement Assessment Battery for Children - Second Edition (MABC-2) to assess the motor development and the results of school report in Portuguese and Mathematics as a measure of academic performance. Pearson's correlation analysis showed a positive association between motor development and cognitive skills, evidencing that students who had better academic performance, also obtained better scores in motor performance. The association between MABC-2 total score and Portuguese grade, for example, obtained a significant correlation of p <0.014. Further studies should be carried out to understand if motor development improve can modulate cognitive skills.