Evidence suggests that fine motor skills (FMS) relate to academic and cognitive development; however, findings are unclear, strewn across multiple disciplines, and lack adequate synthesis.
We conducted the first comprehensive meta-analysis examining the links between different FMS facets (i.e., dexterity, speed, graphomotor, bimanual, general) and a broad range of academic- cognitive skills (i.e., sub-categories of reading, writing, mathematics, and cognition). A literature search identified 21,225 articles resulting in 118 eligible correlational studies (j = 143, k = 1110, N = 79,856).
FMS exhibited significant and moderate relations with academic-cognitive skills (r = .329, d = .697). Graphomotor skills and writing showed the largest effect sizes. Mediation analysis suggested that cognitive skills mediated the link between FMS and academic skills. Overall, findings suggest that FMS share cognitive processes with academic skills, but that FMS are still related functionally to academic skills, especially writing. The discussion focuses on educational implications, moving beyond establishing if links exist to investigating why.
graphomotor skills show moderate to strong links with a range of important academic and cognitive skills, particularly writing, mathematics, and intelligence.
Despite the lack of causal inference possible from correlational designs, the current study has potential implications for educational practice.
First, cognitive skills and executive functions mediated academic skills, particularly reading and mathematics, suggesting that these are key drivers of academic development. Accordingly, these cognitive domains remain key areas to target in interventions.
Further, as alluded to, children have experienced significant changes in terms of their FMS experience. Early education programs have, not without controversy, introduced academic standards focusing on mathematics and reading, in particular, arguably at the expense of more traditional and perhaps motorically involved childhood activities (e.g., artistic or crafting activities). Particularly in light of the current findings, academic and FMS may not need to be mutually exclusive, with research indicating that both reading and mathematics can benefit from concurrent and purposeful motor activity.
Indeed, graphomotor skills were the strongest FMS predictor of academic skills, and in turn, writing was the academic outcome most strongly linked to FMS. Taken together, there appears to be a significant functional overlap between graphomotor and writing skills, as well as with general academic skills. Handwriting is functionally important for academic development, allowing students to take notes and complete exercises more quickly, and also appears to be linked to reading and language development, also via shared neural processes.
Although based on correlational data, the current findings would support the idea that FMS generally, and graphomotor skills more specifically, are potential targets for educational programs, perhaps through both writing and drawing activities. Against this backdrop and in light of the current findings, it would appear that the links between FMS and academic-cognitive skills indicate that academic learning may not be as emancipated from motor skills as modular theories of cognition posit. Further, it could be argued that links between FMS and academic-cognitive skills have been seen as something mainly relevant for early childhood. In contrast, the current findings suggest that links remain constant across the age ranges investigated here, that is, well into adolescence. Some research has found positive effects of movement on learning using experimental and intervention designs; however, this is different from the current finding that actual skill level, not engagement in movement, links to cognitive outcomes.
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