Children’s fine motor skills in kindergarten predict reading in grade 1

Research points toward the role of children’s fine motor skills (FMS) in reading development but needs to better control for confounding variables and establish explanatory pathways. Three explanations for links between FMS and reading are developed that focus on shared development, functionalism, and shared internalized motor processes. Using a longitudinal cross-lagged design with 120 kindergarteners followed into grade 1, we administered measures of reading, FMS, IQ, executive functions (attention, rapid naming), phonemic awareness, nonword repetition, grapho-motor skills, handwriting, as well as receptive and expressive vocabulary. Structural equation modelling indicated a unique diagonal pathway from kindergarten FMS to grade 1 reading, over and above the control variables. Grapho-motor and handwriting skills did not mediate the link between FMS and reading, as predicted by functionalism. Overall, findings suggest that early FMS are subtly but importantly linked to reading in elementary school.