Motor-Enriched Encoding Can Improve Children’s Early Letter Recognition

Abstract

It is not known how effective specific types of motor-enriched activities are at improving academic learning and early reading skills in children. The aim of this study was to investigate whether fine or gross motor enrichment during a single session of recognizing letters "b"/"d" can improve within-session performance or delayed retention the following day in comparison to letter recognition practice without movement. Furthermore, the aim was to investigate children's motivation to perform the specific tasks. We used a randomized controlled intervention study-design to investigate the effect of 10-min motor-enriched "b"/"d" letter training on children's ability to recognize the letters "b" and "d" (n = 127, mean age = 7.61 ± SD = 0.44 years) acutely, and in a delayed retention test. Three groups were included: a fine motor-enriched group (FME), a gross motor-enriched group (GME), that received 10 min of "b" and "d" training with enriched gestures (fine or gross motor movements, respectively), and a control group (CON), which received non motor-enriched "b"/"d" training. The children's ability to recognize "b" and "d" were tested before (T0), immediately after (T1), and one day after the intervention (T2) using a "b"/"d" Recognition Test. Based on a generalized linear mixed model a significant group-time interaction was found for accuracy in the "b"/"d" Recognition Test. Specifically, FME improved their ability to recognize "b"/"d" at post intervention (T0→T1, p = 0.008) and one-day retention test (T0→T2, p < 0.001) more than CON. There was no significant difference in change between GME and CON. For reaction time there were no significant global interaction effects observed. However, planned post hoc comparisons revealed a significant difference between GME and CON immediately after the intervention (T0→T1, p = 0.03). The children's motivation-score was higher for FME and GME compared to CON (FME-CON: p = 0.01; GME-CON: p = 0.01). The study demonstrated that fine motor-enriched training improved children's letter recognition more than non motor activities. Both types of motor training were accompanied by higher intrinsic motivation for the children compared to the non motor training group. The study suggests a new method for motor-enriched letter learning and future research should investigate the underlying mechanisms.

Motor-enriched learning for improving pre-reading and word recognition skills in preschool children aged 5–6 years – study protocol for the PLAYMORE randomized controlled trial

“…However, bodily movement is a multifaceted construct and the mechanisms through which cognition and learning are effected depend highly on the characteristics of the movement activities (e.g. type, movement range) [ 5 , 19 , 53 ]. Thus, when investigating the link between bodily movement and academic performance, it is important to differentiate between different types of movement activities.…”

“…Over the years, a large body of research has emerged mainly using gestures or hand movements but also whole-body movements during learning (e.g. [ 2 , 5 , 19 , 53 , 66 ]). For example, Mavilidi and colleagues used gestures and physical exercise during teaching of 3–5 year-old children learning a new language over a 4-week period and evaluated the effects on new words learned [ 53 ].…”

“…The identified studies mainly focused on handwriting [ 17 , 46 , 61 , 69 , 84 , 85 ], copying or tracing letters/words [ 6 , 37 , 46 , 50 , 85 , 91 ] and only four studies included whole-body movements (i.e. embodying letters, walking the outline of letter) [ 4 , 7 , 19 , 52 ]. Considering the limited amount of studies involving whole-body movements in combinations with the large variety of movement components included in these studies, it is still uncertain whether such activities have a larger impact on word recognition and spelling skills compared to teaching methods not incorporating motor activities.…”

Six Weeks of Basketball Combined With Mathematics in Physical Education Classes Can Improve Children's Motivation for Mathematics

“…It is shown that participating in physical activity has significant benefits for children's cognition and academic education both with single bouts of physical activity (Ferris et al, 2007 ; Skriver et al, 2014 ; Hillman et al, 2019 ), regular physical activity (Broussard, 2004 ; Geertsen et al, 2016 ; Damsgaard et al, 2020 ), and high physical activity levels (Hillman et al, 2014 ; Donnelly et al, 2016 ; Marques et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Also, motor-enriched learning, where learning of a subject is combined with meaningful motor activities, has shown a positive effect on academic content (Beck et al, 2016 ). Damsgaard et al ( 2020 ) found that motor-enriched learning improved children's academic learning (letter recognition), and the children who performed motor-enriched learning had a higher intrinsic motivation for the academic content. Teaching situations where physical activity are integrated meaningfully, may therefore influence both children's motivation and there academic performance in a positive way (Broussard, 2004 ; Geertsen et al, 2016 ; Damsgaard et al, 2020 ).…”