Associations Between Academic and Motor Performance in a Heterogeneous Sample of Children With Learning Disabilities

• Published in: Journal of learning disabilities Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 276 - 282
• Main Authors: Jelle Vuijk, Pieter, Hartman, Esther, Mombarg, Remo, Scherder, Erik, Visscher, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2011; SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities; Sage Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Balls; Beery Developmental Test Visual Motor Integration; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child clinical studies; Children; Children & youth; Clinical Diagnosis; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Developmental disorders; Dexterity; Disabilities; Educational Status; Exceptional children; Female; Foreign Countries; Heterogeneous Grouping; Humans; Intelligence Quotient; Intelligence tests; Learning Disabilities; Learning disabled children; Learning disorders; Learning Disorders - psychology; Male; Manual dexterity; Manual Dexterity Tests; Mathematics; Mathematics Achievement; Medical sciences; Motor ability; Motor Development; Netherlands; Neuropsychological Tests; Perceptual Motor Coordination; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychomotor Performance; Psychomotor Skills; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reading; Reading Ability; Reading Difficulties; Sample Size; Sampling Studies; Scores; Special Education; Special needs children; Special Needs Students; Spelling; Netherlands; learning disabilities; comorbidity; motor performance; special education; Human; Academic achievement; Thaught subject; Concomitant disease; Treatment; School age; Learning disability; Child; Motricity; Special education
• ISSN: 0022-2194; 1538-4780; 1538-4780
• DOI: 10.1177/0022219410378446

A heterogeneous sample of 137 school-aged children with learning disabilities (IQ > 80) attending special needs schools was examined on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC). The results show that compared to the available norm scores, 52.6% of the children tested performed below the 15th percentile on manual dexterity, 40.9% on ball skills, and 33.7% on balance skills. Furthermore, after controlling for IQ, significant small to moderate partial correlations were found between spelling and mathematics and the MABC total score, as well as small to moderate correlations between mathematics and balance, between reading and ball skills, and between spelling and manual dexterity. The present findings are compared with previously reported results obtained in more homogenous groups, and based on the resultant relationships between academic performance and motor development, recommendations for future motor intervention studies are made.