FiMS relate more strongly than GMS to reading, writing, mathematics, general academics and cognition, but not to language; GMS show no significant link to general academic skills¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? GMS showed no statistically significant association with general academic skills (r = .171, p = .101), while FiMS did (r = .399). → Karle 2026

Evidence¶

Karle 2026¶

Karle, V. L., Suggate, S. P., Winter, R., & Stoeger, H. (2026). When Fine is Large and Gross is Small: A Meta-Analysis of Links Between Fine and Gross Motor Skills with Academic-Cognitive Skills. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10161-4

q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r2

In the domain model, all FiMS and GMS associations were significantly above zero "except for the association between GMS and general academic skills" (Table 3: GMS r = .171, p = .101; FiMS r = .399, p = .008).

"As Table 4 shows, the effect sizes were all significantly above zero for both FiMS and GMS, except for the association between GMS and general academic skills."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Fine motor skills correlate more strongly with overall academic-cognitive skills (r = .302) than gross motor skills (r = .170) in children aged 3–16 — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• The FiMS–GMS difference is larger for intelligence than for executive functions, where both motor skills show similar moderate links — related
• Among motor subskills, general FiMS and graphomotor skills show the strongest links to overall academic-cognitive skills, and miscellaneous GMS and balance the strongest among GMS subskills — related
• Writing shows the strongest FMS correlation among academic domains, exceeding reading — related
• FMS subdomain correlations vary within academic domains: nonword reading strongest, letter reading weakest, intelligence strongest among cognitive skills — related
• MASEM suggests cognitive skills partially mediate the link between FMS and academic skills, which drops from r = .334 to .200 — related
• Early fine motor skills predict later arithmetic skills in most longitudinal studies, but not when executive functions are controlled — related