Abstract

Children start to gain basic literacy skills during preschool that they will constantly be depended on for their academic activities in primary school. Through learning shoulder girdle strength, fine motor skills, and eye-hand coordination, the foundation of motor skills is developed. Examining the effects of motor skills on emergent literacy skills could provide helpful information on the associations among motor and, reading and writing development. The purpose of this study was to analyze 5 years old children’s motor development and emergent literacy skills. The sample of the study consisted of 160 preschool children from main district of Istanbul. Dumans TMB scale and OYHB scale was used for data collection purposes. Results showed that majority of the preschool children (68%) participated in the study had insufficient level of emergent literacy skills. This group’s motor development score was also significantly lower than instructional group. Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a positive and medium level correlation between the scores of motor development and emergent literacy in both groups. It has been suggested that preschool children’s motor skills should be taken into account for their emergent literacy skills development.

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