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From movement to mind: Early fine motor skills are associated with cognitive performance at school age in very
J S Meijer1, M L de Jonge2, S Leenen2
1Department of Neonatology, Máxima Medical Center, Veldhoven, Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands.
Insights
Fine motor skills in preterm children at age 5.5 are linked to better cognitive function at age 8. Early motor assessments can help identify children needing support for cognitive development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Neuroscience
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Preterm birth is linked to motor and cognitive deficits.
- The relationship between early motor skills and later cognitive outcomes in preterm children is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between motor skills at 5.5 years and cognitive functioning at 8 years in children born preterm.
Main Methods:
- A cohort study assessed motor skills (Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition) at 5.5 years and cognitive function (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 5th edition) at 8 years.
- Multiple linear regression analyzed the relationship between motor and cognitive scores.
Main Results:
- Manual dexterity at 5.5 years was significantly associated with better performance across most cognitive domains at 8 years, excluding verbal comprehension.
- Preterm children in the study generally scored lower on motor and cognitive measures compared to normative data.
Conclusions:
- Fine motor skills in early childhood are a predictor of later cognitive performance in preterm children.
- Early identification of motor difficulties may facilitate timely interventions to enhance cognitive development in this population.
Background:
Although preterm birth is associated with deficits in both motor and cognitive functioning, the association between early motor skills and cognitive outcomes at a later age remains underexplored.
Aim:
To evaluate associations between motor skills at age 5.5 and cognitive functioning at age 8.
Methods:
Single-center cohort study including children born below 30 weeks' gestation or below 1000 g, between September 1st 2010 and September 1st 2015. Three motor skills (aiming and catching, balance and manual dexterity) were assessed at age 5.5 using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition (MABC-2-NL). Total intelligence quotient and its five subdomains (fluid reasoning, processing speed, verbal comprehension, visual spatial, and working memory) were assessed at age 8 using the fifth version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V-NL). Multiple linear regression analysis was used to investigate associations between MABC-2-NL scores and WISC-V-NL outcomes.
Results:
In total, 327 live born children without congenital malformations were included, of whom 281 survived to 8 years. Of these, 185 (66 %) had follow-up assessments at both 5.5 and 8 years. Scores on motor and cognitive subdomains were lower compared to the normative mean. Regression analysis showed that manual dexterity was significantly associated with better scores on all subdomains of cognitive performance, except for verbal comprehension.
Conclusion:
Our main finding is that fine motor function at age 5.5 is associated with later cognitive performance. Early assessment of motor performance may be helpful for early diagnosis and targeted intervention to support optimal cognitive development of preterm children.
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