Fine motor skills correlate more strongly with overall academic-cognitive skills (r = .302) than gross motor skills (r = .170) in children aged 3–16¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · quant-synthesis r2–r3 · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 Across 59 studies measuring both motor skills in the same samples, FiMS showed a larger pooled correlation with overall academic-cognitive skills than GMS (r = .302 vs. r = .170, p < .001). → 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 · i2 · quant-synthesis · r3

Mixed-effects meta-regression of 856 effect sizes from 59 studies (63 samples, 40,806 participants), controlling for study quality. Table 2 prints the pooled correlations: FiMS r = .302 (CI .252–.371) and GMS r = .170 (CI .122–.223), confirming that "FiMS resulted in greater effect sizes than GMS did".

"As Table 2 shows, FiMS resulted in greater effect sizes than GMS did, a difference confirmed by a post-hoc ANOV A, p < .001."

Karle 2026 (2)¶

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 · i2 · quant-synthesis · r2

Discussion reports the pooled correlations: "FiMS showed an association of r = .302, and GMS of r = .170"; the authors interpret r = .30 as large and r = .17 as small by Gignac and Szodorai's empirically derived benchmarks.

"First, FiMS showed an association of r = .302, and GMS of r = .170, with overall academic-cognitive skills."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• 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 — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• 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
• The FiMS–GMS difference is larger for intelligence than for executive functions, where both motor skills show similar moderate links — related
• Fine motor skills show a significant moderate overall correlation (r = .329) with academic-cognitive skills in children and adolescents — a broader claim this one bears on
• FMS subdomain correlations vary within academic domains: nonword reading strongest, letter reading weakest, intelligence strongest among cognitive skills — related
• Effect sizes were not moderated by publication year, age, or percentage of females, but were related to study quality; publication-bias tests gave mixed signals — related
• Early fine motor skills predict later arithmetic skills in most longitudinal studies, but not when executive functions are controlled — related