Finger-Based Numerical Skills Link Fine Motor Skills to Numerical Development in Preschoolers. 2017

Sebastian Suggate, and Heidrun Stoeger, and Ursula Fischer
1 University of Regensburg, Germany.

Previous studies investigating the association between fine-motor skills (FMS) and mathematical skills have lacked specificity. In this study, we test whether an FMS link to numerical skills is due to the involvement of finger representations in early mathematics. We gave 81 pre-schoolers (mean age of 4 years, 9 months) a set of FMS measures and numerical tasks with and without a specific finger focus. Additionally, we used receptive vocabulary and chronological age as control measures. FMS linked more closely to finger-based than to nonfinger-based numerical skills even after accounting for the control variables. Moreover, the relationship between FMS and numerical skill was entirely mediated by finger-based numerical skills. We concluded that FMS are closely related to early numerical skill development through finger-based numerical counting that aids the acquisition of mathematical mental representations.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008433 Mathematics The deductive study of shape, quantity, and dependence. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed) Mathematic
D009048 Motor Skills Performance of complex motor acts. Motor Skill,Skill, Motor,Skills, Motor
D002657 Child Development The continuous sequential physiological and psychological maturing of an individual from birth up to but not including ADOLESCENCE. Infant Development,Development, Child,Development, Infant
D002675 Child, Preschool A child between the ages of 2 and 5. Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D005260 Female Females
D005385 Fingers Four or five slender jointed digits in humans and primates, attached to each HAND. Finger
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014825 Vocabulary The sum or the stock of words used by a language, a group, or an individual. (From Webster, 3d ed) Vocabularies

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