A new study has found that children with better coordination are more likely to achieve at school.
The study, by researchers at the University of Leeds, involved 300 children aged four to 11 taking part in computer tests which measured their coordination and interceptive timing (the ability to interact with a moving object).
Professor Mark Mon-Williams and his team found that those with better eye-to-hand coordination were more likely to achieve higher scores for reading, writing and math.
“The results show that eye-to-hand co-ordination and interceptive timing are robust predictors of how well young children will perform at school,” Science Daily quoted Professor Mon-Williams as saying.
“The current thinking among psychologists is that the neural circuitry used to build up a child's understanding of their external environment, the way they orientate themselves spatially and understand their world is also used to process numbers and more abstract thinking.”
Professor Mon-Williams said this also raises the question: should schools be identifying those children who are seen as clumsy or not so well coordinated and giving them extra support?
“The study identifies the important relationship between a child's ability to physically interact with their environment and their cognitive development, those skills needed by the child to think about and understand the world around them,” he said.
The study was conducted at the UK’s Lilycroft Primary School which has remodelled its reception, indoor and outdoor areas to include a space where children can develop their motor skills and the ability to call on large muscle groups to coordinate movement.
The school’s head teacher, Nicola Roth, said students should be encouraged to develop these skills throughout their time at the school.
“Playing with construction equipment toys used to stop when children reached the ages of five or six but we have decided to continue with that until they are nine years old,” Roth said.
“This is one of the ways we have implemented the findings, it is a simple step that can have significant benefits for the children's wider education.”
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