Primary school science emphasises hands-on interactions, but little is known about how the sensorimotor experiences these interactions provide shape children's science ideas. Early interactions with science need to be engaging as these shape children's developing attitudes towards science and themselves as science learners; however, these…

South Australian, Lyndall Hendrickson AM (1917-2017) led a lifetime of achievements as a prodigy, concert violinist, polio survivor, violin instructor and teacher of language and music to non-verbal autistic students. Her career halted when she contracted poliomyelitis at the age of 34. To regain motor skill, Hendrickson researched theories of…

This article notes the convergence of recent thinking in neuroscience and grounded cognition regarding the way we understand mental representation and recollection: ideas are dynamic and multi-modal, actively created at the point of recall. Also, neurophysiologically, re-entrant signalling among cortical circuits allows non-conscious processing to…

Research suggests that concepts are distributed across brain regions specialized for processing information from different sensorimotor modalities. Multimodal semantic models fall into one of two broad classes differentiated by the assumed hierarchy of convergence zones over which information is integrated. In shallow models, communication within-…

As human beings, we can interact with our environment through the sense of touch, which helps us to build an understanding of objects and events. The implications of touch for cognition are recognized by many educators who advocate the use of "hands-on" instruction. But is it possible to know something more completely by touching it? Does touch…

Comparison of 224 Pennsylvania secondary agricultural education students with a national sample showed that (1) the Pennsylvania students' cognitive skills were less developed; (2) their preferred responses to information were auditory and emotive; (3) small group and hands-on were preferred environments; and (4) they were less likely to prefer…

This article discusses the evolution of teaching approaches in concert with the findings of over three decades of researches on student perceptual strengths. Confusing reports of successes and only limited successes for students with varied perceptual strengths suggest that combined auditory, visual, tactual, and/or kinesthetic instructional…

Summarizes research regarding psychomotor skill development in technical education and offers suggestions for teaching machine use skills. Four tables display data from various researchers' studies under headings for models for classifying the psychomotor domain, knowledge of results, type of feedback, and type of video feedback. (MF)

The hypotheses that sex differences in spatial ability may result from differences in spatial experience, and that training can improve spatial skills regardless of sex, are tested. Meta-analytic techniques are used. Relationships between spatial activity and ability, and the improvability of spatial test performance for both sexes, are confirmed.…

This article uses meta-analytic findings to evaluate six special education interventions: psycholinguistic training, perceptual-motor training, modality-matched instruction, and treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (stimulant medication, diet modification, and social skills training). Findings are related to decision making in…

The Developmental Day School, a 4-year-old demonstration school in Phoenix, is described. The curriculum is based on neurodevelopmental, sensory integrative principles. An interdisciplinary staff integrates communication, daily living, academic, sensorimotor and music components. Self-stimulating behaviors are handled by analyzing the child's…