At preschool age, motor skills and cognitive functions are regularly examined at well‐child visits. Although reliable screening depends on the stability of the assessed developmental domains, little is known about the stability of motor and cognitive performance in preschool children. The aim of the present study was to investigate how stable motor skills and cognitive functioning are in the preschool years and whether they can predict their own and respective outcome 1 year later. 509 children were examined (46.4% female; M = 3.9 years; SD = 0.6; range 3.0–6.0 years) from the Swiss Preschoolers' Health Study (SPLASHY) at baseline and 1 year later. A Latent Variable Cross‐lagged Panel Model revealed that both motor skills and cognitive functioning are highly stable in the preschool age (.65/.67). Cross‐lagged coefficients were smaller (.37/.22). However, as the cross‐lagged paths did not differ significantly from each other, no reliable conclusions for the prediction of motor skills and cognitive functions may be drawn. We conclude that cognitive functioning and motor skills are highly stable already in the preschool years. Although small cross‐lagged predictive values were found, motor skills and cognitive functions may not to be reliable predictors of their respective outcomes. Future studies should test cross‐lagged predictive effects in clinical samples, where the effects might be larger.

中文翻译：

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学龄前儿童运动表现和认知功能的稳定性和预测：一种潜在的变量方法

在学龄前，定期对有孩子的孩子进行检查，检查他们的运动技能和认知功能。尽管可靠的筛查取决于评估的发育区域的稳定性，但对学龄前儿童运动和认知能力的稳定性知之甚少。本研究的目的是调查学龄前儿童的运动技能和认知功能如何稳定以及一年后它们是否可以预测自己的结果。检查了509名儿童（46.4％女；M  = 3.9岁；SD = 0.6; 从瑞士学龄前儿童健康研究（SPLASHY）开始，基线为1年后，范围为3.0-6.0年。潜在变量交叉滞后面板模型显示，运动能力和认知功能在学龄前都非常稳定（.65 / .67）。交叉滞后系数较小（.37 / .22）。但是，由于交叉滞后的路径之间没有显着差异，因此无法得出预测运动技能和认知功能的可靠结论。我们得出结论，在学龄前，认知功能和运动技能已经非常稳定。尽管发现交叉预测的预测值较小，但运动技能和认知功能可能不是其各自结果的可靠预测指标。未来的研究应测试临床样本中交叉滞后的预测效果，