Teaching and Learning (original) (raw)
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Fine Motor Skills and Executive Function Both Contribute to Kindergarten Achievement
Child Development, 2012
This study examined the contribution of executive function (EF) and multiple aspects of fine motor skills to achievement on 6 standardized assessments in a sample of middle-socioeconomic status kindergarteners. Three-and 4-year-olds' (n = 213) fine and gross motor skills were assessed in a home visit before kindergarten, EF was measured at fall of kindergarten, and Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Academic Achievement were administered at fall and spring. Correlations indicated that EF and fine motor skills appeared distinct. Further, controlling for background variables, higher levels of both EF and fine motor skills, specifically design copy, predicted higher achievement on multiple subtests at kindergarten entry, as well as improvement from fall to spring. Implications for research on school readiness are discussed. Links Between Fine Motor Skills and Achievement Scant research has examined the association between fine motor skills and achievement in We gratefully thank the children and their families, teachers, and research staff who made this study possible.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2018
A considerable body of research indicates that children's executive function (EF) skills and related school readiness constructs are important for early learning and long-term academic success. This review focuses on EF and a related construct, motor skills with a focus on visuomotor integration, as being foundational for learning, and describes how these skills codevelop in young children in bidirectional and synergistic ways. The review discusses definitional and conceptual issues, connects EF and visuomotor integration to relevant theoretical perspectives, discusses measurement issues and advancements, and reviews intervention evidence to support the malleability of these skills in young children. Discussion emphasizes how these skills develop together and suggests that research examining children's learning from a codevelopment perspective can help promote children's health and well-being.
Motor and cognitive development have historically been studied separately. However, recent research has demonstrated that motor and cognitive development are interrelated in many developmental disorders (e.g., children with ADHD, DCD) and in older children (Diamond, 2000). It is unknown if this relationship exists in younger children or if it only emerges in later childhood. Therefore, the purpose of the current project was to explore the relation between executive functioning ability (EF) and motor control in 101 typically developing preschoolers (ages 3 to 5).
PloS one, 2017
Even though positive relations between children's motor ability and their academic achievement are frequently reported, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Executive function has indeed been proposed, but hardly tested as a potential mediator. The aim of the present study was therefore to examine the mediating role of executive function in the relationship between motor ability and academic achievement, also investigating the individual contribution of specific motor abilities to the hypothesized mediated linkage to academic achievement. At intervals of ten weeks, 236 children aged between 10 and 12 years were tested in terms of their motor ability (t1: cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, motor coordination), core executive functions (t2: updating, inhibition, shifting), and academic achievement (t3: mathematics, reading, spelling). Structural equation modelling revealed executive function to be a mediator in the relation between motor ability and academic achi...
The role of the executive functions in school readiness among preschool-age children
Reading and Writing, 2013
The aim of this study was to identify the specific contribution of executive functions to pre-academic skills (emergent literacy, phonological awareness and orthographic knowledge, and emergent mathematic knowledge) over and above cognitive and linguistic underpinning abilities such as naming, short-term memory and vocabulary. The study was designed to examine the following questions: (1) Are executive functions related to pre-academics skills in general or are they related to specific pre-academic skills? (2) Does the magnitude of the relationship between executive functions and pre-academics skills change with the progress in pre-school age? 54 children between the ages of 5 and 6 years old from 4 different kindergartens participated in the project. A wide range of pre-academic skills, cognitive, linguistic and executive functions tasks were administered. The results demonstrated that executive functions contributed significantly to both emergent literacy and emergent mathematic knowledge. In addition, the current study also suggests that the role of executive functions increases with the growth of child's pre-academic development. Finally, the strongest contribution of executive functions was found to orthographic knowledge.
Executive function and learning behaviors: associations with academic skills among preschoolers
Early Child Development and Care, 2019
This study examined the associations of preschool children's executive function (EF) and learning behaviour (CLB) with their concurrent academic skills and the role of CLB as a mediator for the EF-academic skills link. One hundred seventy-nine children were assessed on EF and math and literacy skills. Parents and teachers completed a questionnaire that assessed CLB. We found that both EF and CLB were significantly associated with math and literacy skills. However, EF and CLB were not associated, and there was no support for the mediational model of EF on CLB. This finding suggests that EF and CLB may tap unique aspects of children's learning related skills and are directly and independently associated with children's concurrent math and literacy skills.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2020
There has been an increasing interest in the relationship between motor skills and executive functions (EFs) in young children over the years. However, no clear picture on the relationship between both domains has emerged from these studies. We have extended previous findings by conducting a comprehensive examination of taskspecific and latent relationships between a range of motor skills and EFs in preschool children. The sample consisted of 198 3-to 5-year-old children (102 boys; 51.5%). Motor skills were assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Second Edition. EFs were assessed with the performance-based tasks 'Day/Night,' 'Hand Tapping,' 'Forward Corsi Block,' 'Forward Digit Recall,' and 'Conflict Task,' and a rating-based EF measure (i.e., the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning-Preschool version). Task-specific relationships were examined using zeroorder Pearson correlations. Latent factors of motor skills and EFs were examined using confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine latent relationships. The results of the Pearson correlation analyses showed statistically significant albeit weak correlations between specific motor and EF items (r = 0.15 to r = 0.23). SEM showed non-significant weak relationships between a general motor factor (as a unitary latent construct) on the one hand, and performance-based EFs and rating-based EFs (as latent EF components) on the other hand. In conclusion, this study suggested only weak relationships between motor skills and EFs in preschool children with no clear differences between their task-specific and latent relationships.
Is preschool executive function causally related to academic achievement?
Child Neuropsychology, 2012
The primary objective of this study was to re-evaluate the well-established result that preschoolers' performance on executive function tasks are positively associated with their performance on academic achievement tests. The current study replicated the previously established concurrent associations between children's performance on EF tasks and academic achievement tests. Specifically, children's performance on measures of inhibitory and motor control were positively associated with their performance on tests of reading, writing, and mathematics achievement (rs = .2-.5); moreover, although diminished in magnitude, most of these associations held up even after including an earlier measure of academic achievement as a covariate (rs = .1-.3). However, the application of an alternative analytic method, fixed effects analysis, a method which capitalizes on repeated measures data to control for all time stable measured and unmeasured covariates, rendered the apparent positive associations between
Inquiries in Sport & Physical Education, 2021
From Piaget's cognitive developmental theory to the embodied cognition perspective, there is a consensus among researchers that motor development and skills are intertwined with cognitive development. During the past decade, there has been an increasing interest among the academic world to further examine this relationship and determine the extent to which it is significant. The aim of this paper is to combine and present all the latest data from studies investigating the relationship between gross motor skills and executive functions (EFs) in children 1-15 years old. The results illustrated in the latest available research data indicate that the correlation between these two concepts can vary from weak to strong, depending on the sample (age, abilities, and skills), and the tool for measuring EFs. However, a stronger and more consistent correlation is illustrated between EFs and more complex motor skills. The authors of the article suggest a further investigation of the relationship between EFs and motor skills of the under-researched cohort of children three-to-five years old, as well as the development of appropriate assessment methods for EFs in preschool-aged children in Greece. Thus, in the future it will be more feasible to develop and assess the effectiveness of intervention programmes that will be oriented towards-but not limited to-utilising motor activities as a way of enhancing both the motor development and executive functioning of children.
Fine motor skills and early comprehension of the world: Two new school readiness indicators
Developmental Psychology, 2010
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.