Developmental Relations Among Motor and Cognitive Processes and Mathematics Skills.

This study explored transactional associations among visuomotor integration, attention, fine motor coordination, and mathematics skills in a diverse sample of one hundred thirty-five 5-year-olds (kindergarteners) and one hundred nineteen 6-year-olds (first graders) in the United States who were followed over the course of 2 school years. Associations were dynamic, with more reciprocal transactions occurring in kindergarten than in the later grades. Specifically, visuomotor integration and mathematics exhibited ongoing reciprocity in kindergarten and first grade, attention contributed to mathematics in kindergarten and first grade, mathematics contributed to attention across the kindergarten year only, and fine motor coordination contributed to mathematics indirectly, through visuomotor integration, across kindergarten and first grade. Implications of examining the hierarchical interrelations among processes underlying the development of children's mathematics skills are discussed.

Relations among motor, social, and cognitive skills in pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities.

Despite the comorbidity between motor difficulties and certain disabilities, limited research has examined links between early motor, cognitive, and social skills in preschool-aged children with developmental disabilities. The present study examined the relative contributions of gross motor and fine motor skills to the prediction of improvements in children's cognitive and social skills among 2,027 pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities, including specific learning disorder, speech/language impairment, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorder. Results indicated that for pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities, fine motor skills, but not gross motor skills, were predictive of improvements in cognitive and social skills, even after controlling for demographic information and initial skill levels. Moreover, depending on the type of developmental disability, the pattern of prediction of gross motor and fine motor skills to improvements in children's cognitive and social skills differed. Implications are discussed.

A Rasch Analysis of the KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment.

Effectively assessing children's academic development can help school professionals make placement decisions and prepare appropriate instructional supports. The KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment (Connolly, 2008) is a widely used assessment of children's mathematical abilities; however, despite much use, the measurement properties of the KeyMath-3 DA have not been examined, aside from the development and standardization phases. The current study conducted a Rasch analysis of the Basic Concepts content area of the KeyMath-3 DA in a diverse sample of 308 young children to assess the quality of the assessment. Rasch analytic procedures examined unidimensionality, item and person fit statistics, reliability, and item hierarchy. Misfitting items were further examined, and response patterns were modified. In general, results show that the Basic Concepts subscale is a good measure of the underlying construct of young children's understanding of the basic concepts in mathematics. Implications are discussed.