Fine Motor Skills and their Relationship to School Readiness in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics for Preschool Children

Abstract

The study aims to reveal the relationship between fine motor skills and school readiness in reading, writing and arithmetic skills for preschool children in Taif city in Saudi Arabia. A correlative descriptive method was used. The sub-test of Visual Motor Control and Upper Limb Speed and Dexterity from the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) and school readiness scale in reading, writing, and arithmetic were applied. The clustered random sample of the study consisted of (120) children from KG3, with an average age of five years and nine months. The results revealed that there is a correlation between fine motor skills and school readiness. Strong positive correlation between fine motor skills and reading is shown; fine motor skills explained (66.5%) of the variance in reading. Moderate positive relationship between fine motor skills and writing is shown; fine motor skills explained (42%) of the variance in writing. Finally, strong positive correlation between fine motor skills and mathematics is shown; fine motor skills explained (53%) of the variance in math.

Keywords

• Fine motor skills, school readiness, learning readiness, reading readiness, writing readiness, mathematics readiness, preschool children