Profiles and cognitive predictors of motor functions among early school-age children with mild intellectual disabilities.
Expect fine-motor trouble to outrun gross-motor trouble in early-elementary kids with mild ID, and let low verbal comprehension plus slow processing speed guide who needs the most support.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Y-Jarmolowicz et al. (2008) watched 5- to 8-year-old children with mild intellectual disability while they did motor games and IQ tasks.
The team wanted to know which thinking skills best predict fine- and gross-motor scores.
What they found
Fine-motor problems showed up far more often than gross-motor ones.
Kids who scored low on verbal comprehension and processing speed also scored lowest on motor tests.
How this fits with other research
Smith et al. (2010) later saw the same link in older kids and added that weak executive function travels with weak motor skills.
McClain et al. (2022) moved the lens even younger and found working-memory gaps in toddlers with ID, showing the cognitive-motor story starts early.
Ramos-Sánchez et al. (2022) looked at autism, not ID, and saw the reverse pattern: lower performance IQ predicted poorer motor skills. The two papers seem to clash, but they studied different groups, so both can be true.
Why it matters
When a child with mild ID struggles with buttons, pencils, or scissors, check verbal comprehension and processing speed first. These quick IQ sub-tests flag the kids who need the most motor help. Add executive-function probes if the child is 8-plus. Use the data to justify fine-motor goals and to get teachers on board.
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Join Free →Pull the verbal comprehension and processing-speed scores from the latest school psych report; if both are low, add two extra fine-motor objectives to the IEP.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to describe sensorimotor profile in children with mild intellectual disability (ID), and to examine the association between cognitive and motor function. METHODS: A total of 233 children with mild ID aged 7 to 8 years were evaluated with measures of cognitive, motor and sensory integrative functioning. RESULTS: Children with mild ID performed significantly less well on all test measures. 44.2% of children scored in the impaired range on seven out of 22 sensorimotor measures. They had weaker fine motor skills than gross motor skills. Sensory integrative functions were only mildly impaired. Total IQ substantially predicted overall performance on each motor test. Specifically, verbal comprehension and processing speed indexes were significant predictors of gross and fine motor function. CONCLUSIONS: Sensorimotor dysfunctions were found to be very frequent in children with mild ID. Early identification of sensorimotor impairments is essential to prompt early intervention and facilitate better integration into regular school settings.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2008 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01096.x