Extensive evidence and theory suggest that the development of motor skills during infancy and early childhood initiates a "developmental cascade" for cognitive abilities, such as reading and math. Motor skills are closely connected with the development of spatial cognition, an ability that supports deductive reasoning. Despite the linkage between motor skills and spatial cognition, and spatial cognition with deductive reasoning, no research has explored the developmental connection between early motor skills and reasoning ability, a plausible pathway through which the developmental cascade operates. Drawing data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (N = 1,233; 95% British, 5% other race/ethnicity; 54% male, 46% female; 7% low income, 80% middle income, 12% high income), this study investigated whether there was a relationship between gross and fine motor skills in infancy (22 months of age) and early childhood (42 months of age) and visuospatial deductive reasoning in adolescence (at 10 and 16 years of age). Results indicated that fine but not gross motor skills during early childhood positively predicted reasoning in adolescence. Critically, the fine motor-reasoning association mediated the previously observed link between early fine motor skills and adolescent reading and math ability. These results deepen our understanding of developmental cascade theory and mental model theory by identifying visuospatial reasoning (i.e., mental modeling) as a potential mechanism through which motor skills initiate cognitive development and academic success in reading and math. These findings also highlight the importance of early intervention programs targeting motor skills and illuminate the impact of those interventions on later cognitive and academic skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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儿童早期的精细运动技能预测青春期的视觉空间演绎推理。

大量证据和理论表明，婴儿期和幼儿期运动技能的发展启动了认知能力的“发展级联”，例如阅读和数学。运动技能与空间认知的发展密切相关，空间认知是一种支持演绎推理的能力。尽管运动技能与空间认知以及空间认知与演绎推理之间存在联系，但没有研究探索早期运动技能与推理能力之间的发展联系，这是发展级联运作的合理途径。从 1970 年英国队列研究中提取数据（N = 1,233；95% 的英国人，5% 的其他种族/民族；54% 的男性，46% 的女性；7% 的低收入，80% 的中等收入，12% 的高收入），这项研究调查了婴儿期（22 个月大）和儿童早期（42 个月大）的粗大和精细运动技能与青春期（10 和 16 岁）的视觉空间演绎推理之间是否存在关系。结果表明，儿童早期的精细运动技能而非粗大运动技能正向预测青春期的推理。至关重要的是，精细运动推理关联调节了先前观察到的早期精细运动技能与青少年阅读和数学能力之间的联系。这些结果通过将视觉空间推理（即心理模型）确定为运动技能启动认知发展和阅读和数学学术成功的潜在机制，加深了我们对发展级联理论和心理模型理论的理解。这些发现还强调了针对运动技能的早期干预计划的重要性，并阐明了这些干预对后来的认知和学术技能的影响。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。