How Are Motor Skills Linked to Children's School Performance and Academic Achievement?

Children need a range of skills to transition successfully to formal schooling. In early childhood classrooms, children must master their fine and gross motor skills. In this article, we review the evidence that links motor skills to diverse school outcomes, then describe three sets of cognitive processes—motor coordination, executive function, and visuospatial skills—that are tapped by motor assessments. We then use these processes to explain how motor skills are implicated in children's self-regulation and their emergent literacy and numeracy. We conclude by encouraging theoretical and methodological approaches to clarify the mechanisms that implicate motor skills in school performance and achievement.