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Predictors of Executive Functions in Preschool Children

Sat, March 23, 8:00 to 9:30am, Hilton Baltimore, Floor: Level 1, Peale A

Integrative Statement

Good motor skills and executive functions (EFs) are fundamental for healthy development; they are prerequisites for daily activities, social participation, processing information and the regulation of thoughts and behavior. There is accumulated evidence that motor skills and EFs are associated. It is hypothesized that the control of motor actions might be an origin of later EFs (Gottwald et al. 2016). Contralateral involuntary movements during the performance of a motor task are assumed to measure motor inhibition. These associated movements were found to be related to EF tasks such as selective attention and working memory (Kakebeeke et al. 2017). There also exists evidence for an association between fine motor skills (adaptive motor skills) and EFs (Cameron et al. 2012), while not much is known about pure motor skills and EFs. Overall, there is growing evidence from cross-sectional studies that there is an association between motor skills and EFs but evidence from longitudinal studies is still scarce.
The aim of this study is to examine how specific motor skills are related to EFs cross-sectionally in preschoolers and how these motor skills predict EFs one year later. Additionally, individual and interpersonal factors of the children, known to be related to EFs, were integrated in the analysis. In total 555 typically developing preschool children (47.2% girls, 52.8% boys) aged two to six years were included in the analysis (mean = 3.9, SD = 0.7). Children were recruited from 84 child care centers in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland within the Swiss Preschoolers’ Health Study (SPLASHY). A total of 21 potential predictors were assessed at the first measurement (T1). These included fine motor skills, pure motor skills and associated movements (motor inhibition). Additionally integrated were six demographic/biological predictors, such as socioeconomic status, physical activity, and prematurity; six psychological predictors, such as hyperactivity, cognitive functioning, and emotionality; and six interpersonal predictors, such as parenting style and stress, presence of siblings, and days spent in the child care center. The predictive value of these variables on EFs one year later (T2) was assessed using both standard multiple regression analysis and penalized regression to avoid overfitting due to the number of potential predictors.
Results showed that all three motor variables were linked to EFs cross-sectionally. Of these variables only fine motor skills predicted EFs one year later. Fine motor skills (β = .17), cognitive functions (β = .15), sex (β = .14), socio-economic status (β =.14) at T1, and executive functions at T1 (β = .30) were all associated with EFs one year later. All predictors together accounted for 36% of the variability in EFs. We conclude that fine motor skills can be assumed a reliable predictor of EFs. However, pure motor skills and associated movements did not predict EFs as they express probably the general traits of the individual (its abilities) and not so much the adaptive capacity of the child. Thus, encouraging fine motor skills early in life may support the development of EFs – especially in families with low socioeconomic status.

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