Screen media are associated with fine motor skill development in preschool children

Media form an integral part of children's environments and represent, amongst other domains, altered sensorimotor experiences. Fine motor skills (FMS) represent a fundamental prerequisite for learning and cognition and initial work has begun to show links with screen media usage – although work is scarce and the directionality is uncertain. Therefore, using a cross-lagged-panel design with 2 waves 1 year apart, we examined longitudinal links between media usage and FMS in 141 preschool children. Results show a negative cross-lagged path from media usage to FMS, which was also statistically significant when only newer media were examined, after controlling for parental educational attainment, immigrant status, device ownership, age of first use, working memory, and vocabulary. The study contributes to our understanding of links between media usage and FMS development.