Children's baseline motor skills do not correlate with reading-related outcomes or with their use of movement when naming letter-sounds¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? No significant correlations were found between balance and dexterity measures and academic outcomes, nor between motor skill scores and prevalence of using movement while naming letter-sounds. → Linn Damsgaard 2022
Evidence¶
Linn Damsgaard 2022¶
Linn Damsgaard, Anne-Mette Veber Nielsen, Anne Kær Gejl, Anne Sofie Bøgh Malling, Søren Kildahl Jensen, Jacob Wienecke. (2022). Effects of 8 Weeks with Embodied Learning on 5–6-Year-Old Danish Children's Pre-reading Skills and Word Reading Skills: the PLAYMORE Project, DK. Educational Psychology Review (2022) 34:1709–1737. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09671-8
q3 · i? · causal · r2
Exploratory Spearman rank correlations in the RCT sample using flamingo balance and 9-hole pegboard scores; the discussion adds that "no correlations were found between balance and dexterity measures and academic outcomes." No effect sizes printed.
"An exploratory Spearman correlation showed no significant correlation (p > 0.05) between the children's motor skills performance score and the prevalence of using movement while naming letter-sounds."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Fine motor skills show a significant moderate overall correlation (r = .329) with academic-cognitive skills in children and adolescents — reports the opposite
- Graphomotor skills show the strongest links of the FMS subdomains with academic-cognitive skills, significantly exceeding dexterity — reports the opposite
- Most children taught with movements spontaneously use movements when naming letter-sounds, unlike non-motor-taught children — related
- FMS subdomain correlations vary within academic domains: nonword reading strongest, letter reading weakest, intelligence strongest among cognitive skills — reports the opposite
- Fine motor precision and manual dexterity are positively correlated with handwriting legibility in preschool children, and Functional Dexterity Test time is inversely correlated — 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 — reports the opposite
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
motor-skills-no-correlation-reading-outcomes |
title |
Children's baseline motor skills do not correlate with reading-related outcomes or with their use of movement when naming letter-sounds |
description |
Children's baseline motor skills do not correlate with reading-related outcomes or with their use of movement when naming letter-sounds |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2022 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-22 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — linn-damsgaard-2022 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.