"Physical development is the window to the whole child. Through watching children move, they reveal their true selves." This groundbreaking book bridges the gap between theory and practice, offering a deeper understanding of young children's physical development in outdoor environments. It explores the specific phases of motor…

Creative thinking is a process through which individuals generate ideas that are simultaneously novel and meaningful within a given social context. Historically, psychologists have closely studied the general creative capacity of young learners, as well as the domain-specific creativity of experts. However, the developmental trajectory from…

Object exploration is considered a driver of motor, cognitive, and social development. However, little is known about how early childhood education and care settings facilitate object exploration. This study examined if children's exploration of objects during free play was facilitated by the use of particular spatial components (floor, tables,…

Education is a lifelong endeavour that starts in the womb and lasts until death. It helps the individual to develop full potential by allowing to control the environment of his/her own successful life and living. The foundation of education begins in one's very early childhood and lays the foundation for later stages of educational progression.…

Crawling is considered an important motor skill for infants. Although infants show variations in their crawling, the association between crawling variations and subsequent development is unexplored. This study investigates the difference in amount of crawling variation between infants with and without subsequent developmental delays. This…

Background: Mastery motivational climate (MMC) interventions are an evidence-based approach utilized to deliver motor skill interventions (MSI) for young children. There are 6 environmental characteristics and instructional cues an instructor must appropriately manipulate to implement a MMC. These are known as the TARGET and stand for Task,…

There is no other stage in life where physical growth and motor skills development undergo such rapid changes comprehensively impacting children's overall development than the early and preschool years. Motor skills proficiency contributes to cognitive, social-emotional and academic development and closely connects to positive transition…

Extracorporeal life support, such as pediatric cardiac extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), is associated with significant mortality and morbidity risk. This study evaluated cardiac ECMO survivors with central cannulation and found that 51.1% were discharged from the hospital. The study also revealed high rates of developmental delay…

The purpose of this position paper is to raise awareness of intriguing interdisciplinary intersections among physical activity, motor learning/development, creativity, and cognition. A major intersection is the potential of physical activity that involves the effortful learning of novel and/or complex movement actions to elicit cognitive…

Fine motor skills (FMS) have been intensely studied in developmental contexts, with little attention to their empirical structure and developmental changes. We tested the factor structure of FMS on 5- to 10 year old children in two cohorts from 2020 to 2023, beginning in kindergarten and grade 2 and followed up 1 year later (n = 240 and 310, 49.7%…

This theoretical article examines the crucial role of play-based learning (PBL) in enhancing the mathematical skills of children in the Early Childhood Phase, referred to as Foundation Phase (Grade R-3) learners, within a South African context. The article argues that the traditional approach to teaching early childhood mathematics, where teachers…

Background: Several studies have reported low adherence to World Health Organization sedentary behavior (SB) guidelines in the early years. The purpose of this review is to examine the associations between time spent in different types of SB (screen time and habitual SB) and motor competence (MC; fundamental motor skills, fine and gross motor…

This study is a review that aimed to examine the effects of the peer teaching model implemented in physical education classes on students' motor skill development, acquisition of fundamental skills, maintenance of physical fitness, self-confidence, and cooperation. Various scientific studies conducted with students of different ages and skill…

Motivation is a key factor for child development, but very few studies have examined child and family predictors of both child task and perceived motivation. Thus, the three aims of this 6-month longitudinal study in preschoolers with global developmental delays (GDD) were to explore: 1) differences between task and perceived motivation in…

Autistic individuals often exhibit motor atypicalities, which may relate to difficulties in social communication. This study utilized a smart tablet activity to computationally characterize motor control by testing adherence to the two-thirds power law (2/3 PL), which captures a systematic covariation between velocity and curvature in motor…