Fine motor skills training improves children's arithmetic skills in some trials but not others¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r3 · q2–q3
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In a randomized controlled trial, FMS training improved both FMS and arithmetic skills, with improvements the review describes as medium to large effect sizes without printed values. → Maëlle Neveu 2023 q2 i? Piano training improved FMS and arithmetic jointly in one study, but two other FMS training studies reported no arithmetic improvement despite gains in FMS, self-esteem, or visuospatial working memory. → Maëlle Neveu 2023 (2)

Evidence¶

Maëlle Neveu 2023¶

Maëlle Neveu, Marie Geurten, Nancy Durieux, Laurence Rousselle. (2023). Finger Use and Arithmetic Skills in Children and Adolescents: a Scoping Review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09722-8

q3 · i? · review · r3

Randomized controlled trial (Asakawa et al., 2019) in which school-aged TD participants were trained in fine motor skills; training improved FMS and arithmetic, unlike controls, with improvements the review describes as "medium to large effect sizes" but no numeric value printed.

"The results showed that children in the training group improved not only their FMS but also their arithmetic skills, unlike those in the control group. The improvements had medium to large effect sizes."

Maëlle Neveu 2023 (2)¶

Maëlle Neveu, Marie Geurten, Nancy Durieux, Laurence Rousselle. (2023). Finger Use and Arithmetic Skills in Children and Adolescents: a Scoping Review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09722-8

q2 · i? · review · r3

Non-randomized trials of FMS training (piano lessons for TD children; training for children with DCD) reported no arithmetic improvement despite enhancement in FMS, self-esteem, or visuospatial working memory.

"Conversely, two other studies reported no improvement in arithmetic skills following FMS training in children with TD (Costa-Giomi, 2004; piano lessons) or DCD (Alloway & Warner, 2008), but there was an enhancement in FMS, self-esteem, or visuospatial working memory."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Operations and Place Value — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Finger gnosia is associated with arithmetic skills in some studies but not others, with age and cognitive profile moderating the relation — related
• Early fine motor skills predict later arithmetic skills in most longitudinal studies, but not when executive functions are controlled — related
• Training children to explicitly use finger strategies improves calculation performance in most studies, though results are not uniform — related
• Children with congenital or neurodevelopmental motor disorders show arithmetic difficulties in some comparisons but perform similarly to peers in others — related
• Finger gnosis is not a meaningful correlate of early arithmetic in this sample — related