Relationship between Motor Coordination, Cognitive Abilities, and Academic Achievement in Japanese Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
Takuya Higashionna, Ryoichiro Iwanaga, Akiko Tokunaga and 4 others
PMID 30186080WHAT IT FOUND
Children with neurodevelopmental disorders scored lower on motor coordination than peers.
Better manual dexterity and balance were linked to better reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the study did not show motor training improves school skills.
Key findings
01Children with neurodevelopmental disorders had lower motor coordination than typically developing children, with total standard scores of 9.35 versus 12.85.
02In children with neurodevelopmental disorders, higher total motor coordination was linked to higher total academic achievement.
03Manual dexterity was linked to several cognitive and academic subscales, including reading, writing, and arithmetic; balance was linked to learning, writing, and arithmetic; aiming and catching was not linked to cognitive or academic subscales.
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What it does not show
Only 34 children with neurodevelopmental disorders were studied, and the comparison group was not assessed with IQ or academic achievement. The study did not consider executive function, praxis, sensory processing, socio-economic status, or family characteristics, so these may explain the associations. It was a single-time comparison, so it cannot show that motor coordination problems cause academic problems or that treating motor skills improves school skills. Children had IQ scores from 70 to 126 and no other physical or intellectual disability, so findings may not apply to children with more severe impairments. Results are from Japanese children, and the writing system differs from alphabetic scripts, so they may not transfer directly to other languages.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that motor coordination problems cause academic problems. The study compared children at one time and did not test whether improving coordination changes school skills.