Tallaako lapsi kielensä päälle? Motorisen kehityksen yhteys kielelliseen kehitykseen

• Helena Viholainen

Abstrakti

Investigating the connection between motor development and language development (englanti)

2/2007 (111)

INVESTIGATING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

The article presents the findings of a set of studies intended to enhance our understanding of the significance of motor development in a childs language development. The aim of the studies was to investigate whether there is a connection between early motor development and the language skills and reading speeds of children at different ages. The studies formed part of a more extensive project, the Jyvskyl Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. The first of the studies investigated the connection between motor skills and language development in 176 children aged 18 months to 2 years. Half of this total, i.e. 88 children, constituted the control group, while the remaining 88 children comprised the at-risk group. The latter consisted of children with a familial risk of dyslexia. The second of the studies focused on the language skills of children aged 3-5 and on their reading ability at the end of their first school year. The participants in this study numbered 154, of whom 79 constituted the control group and 75 the at-risk group. On the basis of their early motor development the children in the control group were divided into three subgroups, and those in the at-risk group into two subgroups. The subgroups were defined in terms of motor development characteristics. In the control group, the three subgroups consisted of children whose fine and gross motor skills were developing more quickly than their peers, those whose fine motor skills were developing more slowly than their peers, and those whose gross motor skills were developing more slowly than their peers. The two subgroups in the at-risk group comprised children whose fine and gross motor skills were developing more quickly than their peers and more slowly than their peers.

A connection between early motor development and language development was found only in the at-risk group. It was found that children in the at-risk group whose motor skills were developing at a slower rate than their peers produced fewer words and displayed a weaker grasp of the structures of the Finnish language; this was the case in all the age groups studied (1-5 years). At the end of their first school year these children were also slower in reading than the others. The results show that the slower development of early motor skills can be an indication that later problems may occur in the childs language development, especially if there are also other risk factors involved, such as familial risk of dyslexia. Further research is needed to investigate the language-development impact of support measures for early motor development.

Helena Viholainen