Associations between physical activity, motor skills, executive functions and early numeracy in preschoolers

Abstract

We investigated direct and indirect cross-sectional associations of physical activity, fundamental motor skills, executive functions, and early numeracy in preschoolers. The participants were 214 preschoolers aged three to five years. Time spent in moderate and vigorous physical activity was measured by hip-worn accelerometers and fundamental motor skills using the tasks assessing locomotor, object control, and stability skills. Inhibition/switching and working memory/updating, as components of executive functions, were assessed by computerised tests and a standardised test was used to assess early numeracy. Path analyses were used to examine direct and indirect associations between the constructs. Our results showed that stability skills were indirectly positively associated with early numeracy through inhibition/switching (β = 0.07, p < 0.05, 95% CI [0.02, 0.14]) and locomotor skills through working memory/updating (β = 0.13, p = 0.001, 95% CI [0.06, 0.20]). Vigorous physical activity was positively associated with early numeracy through locomotor skills and working memory/updating (β = 0.04, p = 0.01, 95% CI [0.01, 0.07]) and negatively associated with early numeracy through inhibition/switching (β = −0.06, p < 0.05, 95% CI [−0.11, −0.02]). Highlights. Locomotor skills are positively associated with early numeracy through working memory/ updating. . Stability skills are positively associated with early numeracy through inhibition/switching. . Vigorous physical activity is indirectly associated with early numeracy: Positively through locomotor skills and working memory/updating and negatively through inhibition/switching.

Cross-Lagged Associations between Physical Activity, Motor Performance, and Academic Skills in Primary School Children

“…Versatile and motor skill-challenging PA has also been found to improve motor performance (44,45). PA during early childhood may partly explain the association between motor performance and academic skills (34), although motor performance was associated with academic skills independently of PA. Our findings suggest that the developmental pathways between PA, motor performance, and academic skills could be multifaceted and depend on the age of the children. However, the interpretation of these results should be conducted cautiously because this study examined cross-lagged associations using only two time points.…”

“…At the next step, autoregressive and cross-lagged paths were drawn from PA, motor performance, and academic skills from grade 1 to grade 3. Based on our previous findings suggesting that motor performance mediates the association of PA with academic skills in children (34), we examined indirect pathways from PA and motor performance in grade 1 to academic skills in grade 3. We also investigated whether PA mediates the associations between motor performance and academic skills in a separate model, but that pathway was not statistically significant.…”

Association between physical activity and self‐regulation in early childhood: A systematic review

“…There was considerable heterogeneity in the study design, methods, analyses, and measures of the included studies. The 37 studies included samples from nine different countries including USA (n = 18), 16,29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] Canada (n = 9), [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60] Australia (n = 5), [61][62][63][64][65] China (n = 5), [66][67][68][69][70] South Africa (n = 3), [71][72][73] Germany (n = 2), 74,75 Finland (n = 2), 76,77 the United Kingdom (n = 1), 78 and Spain (n = 1), 79 Brazil (n = 1). 80 The majority of studies (99%) were published within the last decade with only one study ...…”

“…80 The majority of studies (99%) were published within the last decade with only one study 47 being published in 2006. The included studies consisted of cross-sectional (n = 19), 29,37,38,43,51,54,[56][57][58]61,65,[71][72][73][76][77][78][79][80] longitudinal (n = 12), 29,37,44,48,53,55,59,60,[62][63][64]75 RCT (n = 5), 16,40,66,68,69 pre-post experimental with no control group (n = 5), 39,41,46,47,50 quasi-experimental (n = 4), 49,67,70,74 and experimental (n = 2) 42,45 design. Most studies (n = 37) included participants aged 3-5 years, seven studies inclu...…”

Executive functions and mathematical competence in Chinese preschool children: A meta-analysis and review

“…Executive functions are also considered a critical advanced cognitive activity that influences individual development (Zelazo et al, 2004;Anderson and Reidy, 2012;Vanhala et al, 2022). In other words, children's executive functions are formed and continually developed from the earliest stage of infancy till puberty.…”