Abstract:

The level of acquired primary motor skills is closely related to the development of the cognitive, neuromotor, social and emotional aspects of the child. Among other things, the level of primary motor skills is reflected in the quality of child’s perception, work endurance, adaptability to the new environment and also contributes to the quality of executive functions. The level of motor skills is also assessed within the child's readiness for compulsory school attendance. The presented pilot research was focused on assessing the relationship between the observed aspects of motor skills and the level of reverse tendencies in reading and writing of the child. Edfeldt's test was applied to 80 children aged 7.2 years to examine the child's problems in learning to read and write. Based on the achieved score, the children were distributed into categories I - IV (unpreparedness for reading and writing to more than the average readiness) according to the intensity of the reverse tendency. The child's level of motor skills was assessed with a MABC-2 test battery. Its individual subtests are focused on three components of motor skills: manual skills, gross motor skills and balance. The overall level of motor skills is then evaluated on the basis of the overall score achieved in the categories: no motor difficulties, risk of motor difficulties and significant motor difficulties. Pearson's correlation coefficient (rp) was used to determine the relationships between the level of motor skills and the level of reverse tendencies in reading and writing. Gender differences in all monitored variables were assessed by t-test. Alpha levels were set at 0.05 a priori. Cohen's d was used to determine the factual significance of the differences. The approval of the Ethics Committee of the authors' workplace was obtained for the realization of the project. The child's participation was dependent on the informed consent of the legal representatives of the monitored children. This pilot study was supported by the Internal Grant IGA_PdF_2022_011. The results of the pilot research did not clearly show the relationship between the intensity of the reverse tendency in reading and writing and the overall level of motor skills in the group of monitored children. However, the results indicate the relationship of reverse tendency in reading and writing with the level of fine motor skills, especially in girls. The results confirm the importance of the role that motor skills play in a child's development and preparation for compulsory school attendance.

Keywords:

Motor skills, reading child.