Fine Motor Skills, Visual Function, and Reading in Children

Fine Motor Skills, Visual Function, and Reading in Children

Human Movement Science recently published research examining the association between fine motor skills, visual function, and reading in children. The participants included 19 children who were reading below expected grade and age level.  In order to test whether the children identified with reading difficulties perform worse only on fine motor tasks that rely on binocular input, the researchers used two experimental tasks: bead-threading and peg-board.   Each participant completed tests for stereoacuity, fusional vergence, amplitude of accommodation, and accommodative facility.

The results indicated:

• children with reading difficulties performed significantly worse on the bead-threading task.
• performance on the peg-board task was similar in both groups.
• accommodative facility was the only measure of binocular function significantly associated with motor performance.

The researchers concluded that normal binocular vision may provide an important sensory input for the development of fine motor skills and reading.  Further research was recommended with a larger sample size.

Read more on the link between visual-motor integration and reading.

Reference: Niechwiej-Szwedo, E., Alramis, F., & Christian, L. W. (2017). Association between fine motor skills and binocular visual function in children with reading difficulties. Human movement science, 56(Pt B), 1.

Need fine motor skill activities?  Check out all of our resources here.  Visual perceptual resources?  Find out more here.

 

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Link Between Reading, Visual Perception, and Visual–Motor Integration

Link Between Reading, Visual Perception, and Visual–Motor Integration

Decoding written words is a key component to developing the ability to read.  In order to decode, children need adequate visual perceptual skills.  Recent research published in Dyslexia discussed the link between reading, visual perception, and visual–motor integration using the Developmental Test of Visual Perception version 2 (DTVP-2).  The study examined three parts:

1) how did visual perception and visual–motor integration in kindergarten predict reading outcomes in neurotypical Grade 1 students.

2) if the skills can be seen as clinical markers in children with dyslexia.

3) if visual–motor integration and motor-reduced visual perception can distinguish children with dyslexia depending upon whether they exhibited developmental coordination disorder.

The results of the study indicated the following:

• phonological awareness and visual–motor integration predicted reading outcomes one year later.
• DTVP-2 demonstrated similarities and differences in visual–motor integration and motor-reduced visual perception between children with DD, DCD, and both of these deficits.

The researchers concluded that the DTVP-2 is a suitable tool to examine links between visual perception, visual–motor integration and reading, and to differentiate cognitive signs of children with developmental disabilities.

Reference: Bellocchi, S., Muneaux, M., Huau, A., Lévêque, Y., Jover, M., & Ducrot, S. (2017). Exploring the Link between Visual Perception, Visual–Motor Integration, and Reading in Normal Developing and Impaired Children using DTVP‐2. Dyslexia, 23(3), 296-315.

Looking for activities to practice visual perceptual skills and visual motor integration?  Check out these titles:

Hole Punch Palooza – combine visual perceptual, visual motor, letter recognition and hand strengthening with this digital download.  It includes 26 capital letter strips, 26 lowercase letter strips, 16 pre-writing strips, 12 visual discrimination strips, 4 counting strips, 4 prepositional phrase strips and 4 hole punch race strips.  Once printed, children can trace the letters, write the letters and hole punch the matching letters.  All the hole punch strips are in black and white.Hole Punch Palooza encourages: hand strengthening, handwriting and drawing practice, visual discrimination skills, visual motor skills, right/left discrimination and bilateral coordination.

Visual Motor Exercises – This digital download includes 25 long mazes and patterns to print, assemble and complete to practice pencil control.  Once the pattern/maze is assembled it is 28 inches in length.  This length encourages the child to cross the midline and to rotate the head (vestibular input) while completing the visual motor exercise.  The patterns and mazes vary in difficulty from easy to hard with horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curves and circular patterns.  The patterns/mazes are all in black and white.  There is a step by step direction sheet with color photos for the children to follow along.

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Less Movement = Harder to Read for Boys

The Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport published research on the association of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time (ST) with reading and arithmetic skills in 89 boys and 69 girls aged 6–8 years.  MVPA and ST were assessed by monitoring heart rate, using a movement sensor and measuring body fat percentage.  Reading fluency, reading comprehension, and arithmetic skills were evaluated using standardized tests in Grades 1–3.  Data analysis revealed the following:

• for boys, MVPA was directly and ST inversely associated with reading fluency in Grades 1–3 and arithmetic skills in Grade 1.
• for boys. higher levels of MVPA were also related to better reading comprehension in Grade 1.
• for boys, a combination of lower levels of MVPA and higher levels of ST had consistently poorer reading fluency and reading comprehension across Grades 1–3.
•  for girls, ST was directly associated with arithmetic skills in Grade 2. However, this relationship of ST with arithmetic skills was no longer significant after adjustment for body fat percentage.

The researchers concluded that lower levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity, higher levels of sedentary time, and particularly the combination of the two, were related to poorer reading skills in boys.

Reference:  Haapala, Eero A., et al. “Physical activity and sedentary time in relation to academic achievement in children.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport (2016). DOI: http://ift.tt/2hzB16W

Mini Movement Breaks  This download is a collection of 60+ quick sensory motor activity cards. The mini movement breaks are quick and require no equipment. The movement breaks can be done indoors. Most of the movement breaks can be done with one child or a group of children. It does not get any easier than this to encourage sensory motor activities in the classroom or home.  Find out more information.

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Brain Activation, Handwriting and Learning to Read

Did you know some research indicates that brain activation when identifying letters is influenced by previous handwriting of letters?  Researchers at Indiana University have published several research articles on visual perceptual skills in children.  One article that was published in Trends in Neuroscience and Education examined 15 preliterate, right handed children (ages 4.2-5 years old).  During functional MRI scanning, each child was shown a letter or shape on an index card and asked to draw, trace or type the item without it being named by the experimenter.

The following results were recorded:

1.  after self-generated printing experience, letter perception in the
   young child recruits components of the reading systems in the
   brain more than other forms of sensori-motor practice (tracing or typing).

The researchers concluded that “handwriting is important for the early recruitment in letter processing of brain regions known to underlie successful reading. Handwriting therefore may facilitate reading acquisition in young children”

Read the full text article here http://www.indiana.edu/~canlab/assets/2012-kjames—englehardt_effects-of-handwiritng.pdf

Reference:  James KH, Engelhardt L. The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in preliterate children. Trends in Neuroscience and Education (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2012.08.001.

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Check out handwriting activities for children at http://yourtherapysource.com/handwriting.html

Balance and Dyslexia

Recent research attempted to determine is there is a connection with balance skills and reading speed. Ninety four children with a familial risk of dyslexia were compared to 85 children without a risk of dyslexia. The results showed that children with a risk of dyslexia had more problems with balance and reading. Testing indicated that attention, IQ, hyperactivity and motor functioning were not related to balance problems although attention and IQ were related to reading speed. The researchers concluded that balance problems alone do not produce reading difficulties and that perhaps there is a genetic mechanism between balance and reading problems.

Reference: VIHOLAINEN, H., ARO, M., AHONEN, T., CRAWFORD, S., CANTELL, M. and KOOISTRA, L. (2011), Are balance problems connected to reading speed or the familial risk of dyslexia?. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 53: 350–353. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2010.03856.x