“Fine motor skills and executive function both contribute to kindergarten achievement”
Links between Fine Motor Skills and Achievement
Source: Child Dev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 Jul 1.
Scant research has examined the association between fine motor skills and achievement in typical school-age populations, despite the prevalence of motor tasks in schooling (Marr, Cermak, Cohn, & Henderson, 2003). Instead, early studies examined clinical populations, focusing on the comormidity of motor and academic difficulties (Kephart, 1964; O’Donnell & Eisenson, 1969). Fine motor skills are the strongest predictor of special education referral and the second strongest predictor of kindergarten retention controlling for vocabulary, auditory and visual skills, and socio-demographic factors (Roth, McCaul, & Barnes, 1993). Motor difficulties have also been widely documented in clinical samples in a range of diagnoses including autism, ADHD, and externalizing behavior disorders (Livesey, Keen, Rouse, & White, 2006; Williams, Whiten, & Singh, 2004). About 60% of children diagnosed with ADHD are also diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder, suggesting a co-occurrence of impairment in EF and motor processes (Sugden, Kirby, & Dunford, 2008).
Early childhood professionals and curricula have long emphasized the importance of motor development (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997; Lillard, 2005), and kindergarten teachers rate fine motor skills as a key aspect of school readiness (Johnson, Gallagher, Cook, & Wong, 1995). By kindergarten, fine motor tasks are better predictors of reading achievement than gross motor tasks (Wolff, Gunnoe, & Cohen, 1985). Children with strong fine motor skills measured with a composite demonstrate better mathematics performance at kindergarten entry and make greater mathematics gains over the year (Luo, Jose, Huntsinger, & Pigott, 2007;Son & Meisels, 2006).
In longitudinal work, children who had strong motor skills measured with a composite of fine and gross motor tasks in preschool attained higher levels of third grade reading achievement (McPhillips & Jordan-Black, 2007). Using three nationally-representative data sets and controlling for a host of background variables and prior achievement, Grissmer et al. (2010) reported that a fine motor composite and teacher-rated attention measured at kindergarten entrance each strongly predict later achievement in reading and mathematics. Murrah (2010) also documented strong, distinct contributions of fine motor and EF measures to first, third, and fifth grade mathematics and reading. This work is promising in that it suggests that fine motor and EF make separate contributions to early elementary school achievement. Nonetheless, both Grissmer et al. and Murrah used large-scale data sets that relied on composites of predictor or outcome measures, including a measure of EF that was based on teacher-reports of attention. More information is therefore needed on how specific aspects of fine motor skill are associated with specific aspects of early achievement when controlling for a direct measure of EF.
Fine motor tests typically include multiple tasks with visual, cognitive, and manual dexterity demands (e.g., drawing with a pencil to either copy an external image, or spontaneously generate an image) and spatial organization (e.g., building with blocks). The ability to match motor movement with an external visual stimulus, such as copying a design, is more predictive of children’s achievement than other motor skills, such as gross motor balance (Bart, Hajami, & Bar-Haim, 2007; Sortor & Kulp, 2003). When design copy was parsed from draw-a-person and draw-a-profile in the British Birth Cohort Study, it was the strongest fine motor predictor of later mathematics and reading (Grissmer, et al., 2010). This is notable because the draw-a-person task has traditionally been considered a proxy for overall cognitive ability (Chappell & Steitz, 1993), but perhaps less reliably so for the current generation (Imuta, Willcock, & Hayne, 2011). In another study, children who could copy designs well at kindergarten entry had higher teacher-rated reading, writing, math, and spelling through third grade (Taylor Kulp, 1999).
These investigations offer preliminary support for the notion that children who lack adequate fine motor skills, notably design copy skills, are likely to fall behind in other academic areas. This may be due in part to the fact that design copy is highly related to handwriting (Daly, Kelley, & Krauss, 2003). Yet perceptual-motor interventions based on the early studies that linked motor deficits to achievement were eventually discredited as a remedy for reading disability (Kavale & Mattson, 1983). There is renewed interest, however, in understanding how fine motor and academic skills are related (Grissmer, et al., 2010; Son & Meisels, 2006). Furthermore, a set of underlying cognitive processes that are relevant for design copy, handwriting,and achievement, may play an important role in explaining this association.