Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational Factors
Introduction: Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families, and in particular, those with a lower level of maternal education, show lower fine-motor skills and lower vocabulary scores than their SES peers whose mothers have a higher level of education. Furthermore, low SES children frequent...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.687207/full |
| _version_ | 1819124134559350784 |
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| author | Chagit Hollander Esther Adi-Japha Esther Adi-Japha |
| author_facet | Chagit Hollander Esther Adi-Japha Esther Adi-Japha |
| author_sort | Chagit Hollander |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families, and in particular, those with a lower level of maternal education, show lower fine-motor skills and lower vocabulary scores than their SES peers whose mothers have a higher level of education. Furthermore, low SES children frequently have difficulties in reading and spelling. These difficulties are attributed to deficits in the acquisition of skills through practice, such as those required for developing visual-motor routines, alongside deficits in the intentional acquisition of knowledge, such as those required in verbal learning. The aim of the current study was to test the effect of two background factors: low maternal education (ME) and risk of reading and spelling difficulties on practice-dependent learning of a motor task and intentional learning of a verbal task in second graders from low SES families.Methods: In 2016/17, 134 low-SES second graders with higher and lower ME (95 typical learners and 39 with reading and spelling difficulties) were assessed with (a) the Invented Letter Task (ILT; a grapho-motor skill learning task) across five time-points (initial- and end-training Day 1; initial- and end-training Day 2; and 2-weeks post-training), as well as an ILT transfer task; and (b) The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT; an intentional word-learning task in which a word list is read to children for five learning trials and is recalled 20 min later).Findings: Lower ME was associated with surplus segments in the performance of the motor task and its transfer to a novel condition as well as with lower recall on the verbal task, but not with the learning of both the motor and the verbal task. Having reading and spelling difficulties affected motor-task accuracy and also the way children learned the task, as evidenced by surplus segments at the beginning of Day 2, which were reduced with further practice.Conclusion: Low ME affected overall performance level. Reading and spelling difficulties resulted in atypical learning of the motor task. Future research on practice-dependent learning in the context of children coming from low SES families should focus on subgroups within this heterogeneous population. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T07:19:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a3ff5240c55140aaae46833998efaf6b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T07:19:25Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-a3ff5240c55140aaae46833998efaf6b2022-12-21T18:34:19ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-10-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.687207687207Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational FactorsChagit Hollander0Esther Adi-Japha1Esther Adi-Japha2School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, IsraelSchool of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, IsraelThe Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, IsraelIntroduction: Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families, and in particular, those with a lower level of maternal education, show lower fine-motor skills and lower vocabulary scores than their SES peers whose mothers have a higher level of education. Furthermore, low SES children frequently have difficulties in reading and spelling. These difficulties are attributed to deficits in the acquisition of skills through practice, such as those required for developing visual-motor routines, alongside deficits in the intentional acquisition of knowledge, such as those required in verbal learning. The aim of the current study was to test the effect of two background factors: low maternal education (ME) and risk of reading and spelling difficulties on practice-dependent learning of a motor task and intentional learning of a verbal task in second graders from low SES families.Methods: In 2016/17, 134 low-SES second graders with higher and lower ME (95 typical learners and 39 with reading and spelling difficulties) were assessed with (a) the Invented Letter Task (ILT; a grapho-motor skill learning task) across five time-points (initial- and end-training Day 1; initial- and end-training Day 2; and 2-weeks post-training), as well as an ILT transfer task; and (b) The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT; an intentional word-learning task in which a word list is read to children for five learning trials and is recalled 20 min later).Findings: Lower ME was associated with surplus segments in the performance of the motor task and its transfer to a novel condition as well as with lower recall on the verbal task, but not with the learning of both the motor and the verbal task. Having reading and spelling difficulties affected motor-task accuracy and also the way children learned the task, as evidenced by surplus segments at the beginning of Day 2, which were reduced with further practice.Conclusion: Low ME affected overall performance level. Reading and spelling difficulties resulted in atypical learning of the motor task. Future research on practice-dependent learning in the context of children coming from low SES families should focus on subgroups within this heterogeneous population.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.687207/fulldevelopmental dyslexiaprocedural-learninglow-SES childrenmaternal education levelgrapho-motor learningimplicit-memory |
| spellingShingle | Chagit Hollander Esther Adi-Japha Esther Adi-Japha Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational Factors Frontiers in Psychology developmental dyslexia procedural-learning low-SES children maternal education level grapho-motor learning implicit-memory |
| title | Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational Factors |
| title_full | Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational Factors |
| title_fullStr | Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational Factors |
| title_full_unstemmed | Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational Factors |
| title_short | Second Graders’ Grapho-Motor Skill Learning and Verbal Learning: The Effects of Socio-Educational Factors |
| title_sort | second graders grapho motor skill learning and verbal learning the effects of socio educational factors |
| topic | developmental dyslexia procedural-learning low-SES children maternal education level grapho-motor learning implicit-memory |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.687207/full |
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