Associations of Physical Fitness and Motor Competence With Reading Skills in 9- and 12-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study
Associations of Physical Fitness and Motor Competence With Reading Skills in 9- and 12-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study
Blog Article
This longitudinal study explores the association of motor competence and physical fitness with reading skills in children aged 9 and 12 years.Sixty-seven children aged 9 years completed an assessment of motor competence (measured using the Movement Assessment battery for Children), SUPER MULTI-WITH IRON physical fitness (assessed using the Test of Physical Fitness), and reading (measured using the Wordchain test).The testing procedures were repeated after 32 months.For the 9-year-old group, there was a low, negative correlation between motor competence and reading overall, r = −.
031 (girls: r = −.207; boys: r =.180).Correlation between fitness and reading was also low ( r =.
064).Girls had a higher correlation between fitness and reading than boys ( r =.404; 17.7% shared variance, vs.
r = −.138).When the children were 12 years old, there was still a low association of motor competence and fitness with Mouthwash And Gargle reading.These low associations can be used to support the task specificity principles of learning.