Association between fine motor function and fundamental cooking skills in preschool-aged children

Correlation analyses indicated that better NHPT performance was associated with higher total CS score, mashing performance, and spreading performance. In general, children that demonstrated better fine motor function via the NHPT maintained a more anatomically neutral shoulder joint position and faster average joint velocities during the performance of CS. Independent t-tests indicated that there were no sex differences between male and female children on the CS nor FMS performance. Our results demonstrated preliminary evidence suggesting an association between cooking skills performance and fine motor function, as well as initial characterization of cooking skill movement patterns associated with more adept fine motor control.