Relationships Between Written Spelling, Motor Functioning and Sequencing Skills

Abstract

The research was carried out on a representative sample of normal third-grade school children to investigate whether or not there were any meaningful relationships between spelling ability, motor functioning, balance, handedness, visuo-spatial ability (independent of motor activity), and various auditory and vocal (articulemic) skills. The results reported in this paper and the subsequent discussion refer mainly to the relationship between spelling, psycholinguistic skills and motor functioning. The latter term is used here in its widest meaning in that it includes balance, vocal activity, writing and to some extent handedness. Obviously, kinesthetic sensory feedback is essential to muscular action and therefore it, too, is implicated.