The relationship between phonological awareness and fine motor skills in younger school-age children

Abstract

Introduction. Although the correlation between motor and language development has been analyzed through various studies, the correlation between phonological development and fine motor skills in younger school-age children has not been sufficiently investigated. Objective. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between phonological awareness and visuomotor coordination in younger school-age children. Methods. The study included 60 children attending the third grade of primary schools in Belgrade. Developmental coordination disorder was observed in 27 children, while 33 children were without this disorder. The Questionnaire for Developmental Coordination Disorder was used to determine its presence. Phonological awareness was assessed by the Test of Phonological Awareness, and fine motor skills by subtests of the Acadia Test of Developmental Abilities - Visuomotor Coordination and Sequencing and Figure Copying. Results. The results show significant below-average achievements in visuomotor coordination, figure copying, and phonological awareness in children with developmental coordination disorder. Regression analysis showed that visuomotor coordination significantly predicts all elements of phonological awareness in children. In children with developmental coordination disorder, figure copying explains 26.3% of the variance in phonemic segmentation and 20.8% of the variance in initial phoneme identification. Conclusion. In younger school-age children, visuomotor coordination is an independent predictor of all levels of phonological processing. From the earliest school age, poor phonological awareness and fine motor skills follow children with developmental coordination. Different regression analysis results in children with and without developmental coordination disorder indicate that not all aspects of fine motor skills are equally important for phonological awareness.

Keywords

• phonological awareness
• fine motor skills
• younger school age
• developmental coordination disorder