Cognitive-Motor Interactions

Abstract

The relationship of gross motor development to later cognitive status was assessed by comparing the ages of attainment of four early milestones to later performance on the Stanford Binet. The ages of rolling supine to prone, sitting alone, crawling, and walking were collected in a prospective fashion via parental report for 213 Caucasian children. Stanford Binet IQ was measured at 3 years. Significant but low-order correlations were noted for age of milestone and Stanford Binet IQ. Stratifying the sample by IQ standard deviation groups revealed significant relationships, but this was largely the result of the difference between the extreme groups (117 vs. 85). Children with earlier ages of milestone attainment did not have higher IQs on average. The association of gross motor development and cognition is not strong enough to allow the use of one to predict the other.