Relations between Motor, Social, and Cognitive Skills in Young Children with Developmental Disabilities

RELATIONS BETWEEN MOTOR, SOCIAL, AND COGNITIVE SKILLS IN YOUNG CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES Helyn Kim, M.A George Mason University, 2012 Thesis Director: Dr. Timothy W. Curby The importance of children’s motor abilities, in relation to other developmental areas, has been acknowledged in both theory and research. However, researchers have typically focused on gross motor abilities in relation to cognitive and social abilities, and associations between fine motor, cognitive, and social abilities have received little research attention. In addition, very few studies have looked at the potential interrelations between motor, social, and cognitive abilities in preschool-aged children with developmental disabilities. The current study examined three areas of development, motor (both fine and gross motor), social, and cognitive skills, in preschool-aged children with developmental disabilities, to see whether there were associations between the three areas. The data for the study come from the Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP; Winsler et al., 2008), a large-scale, collaborative, school readiness project, taking place in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Participants were children receiving early childhood special education services (N = 3,191), who were assessed for overall development and socio-emotional protective factors in the Fall and Spring of their pre-kindergarten year, using the LAP-D (Nehring, Nehring, Bruni, & Randolph, 1992) and the DECA (LeBuffe & Naglieri, 1999). Results indicated that there were definite associations between motor, cognitive, and social skills. Also, both fine motor and gross motor skills in the Fall of the pre-kindergarten year significantly predicted later cognitive and social skills, measured in the Spring of the pre-kindergarten year, after controlling for child gender, age, and disability type; however, associations were stronger for fine motor skills, as opposed to gross motor skills, for both cognitive and social skills. In addition, disability category moderated the associations between motor and social and cognitive skills; however, gender was not a moderator, suggesting that the underlying associations between the three areas are similar for both boys and girls. The findings from this study have important implications for early educational programs and interventions, as well as for policymakers.