The ability to adjust movements in response to perturbations is key for an efficient and mature nervous system, which relies on two complementary mechanisms -- feedforward adaptation and feedback control. We examined the developmental trajectory of how children employ these two mechanisms using a previously validated visuomotor rotation task,…

This article will focus in on one short play spell in the outdoor space of a classroom of 2-year-olds. Using the medium of video as data, it explores the way that children's bodies are caught up in what Ingold calls a 'dance of animacy', when bodies and matter encounter each other. I will deploy the figure of the 'post-human' child to challenge a…

Mauri Tui Tuia is a professional development programme established by the first and second authors who are a Registered Arts and Dance Movement Therapist and a Registered Music Therapist respectively. Mauri Tui Tuia seeks to empower educators to develop a kete of tools to support children in building resilience and maintaining wellbeing, through…

Although most of the faces we encounter daily are moving ones, much of what we know about face processing and its development is based on studies using static faces that emphasize holistic processing as the hallmark of mature face processing. Here the authors examined the effects of facial movements on face processing developmentally in children…

Purpose: This article presents a quantitative method for assessing instantaneous and average lateral vocal-fold motion from high-speed digital imaging, with a focus on developmental changes in vocal-fold kinematics during childhood. Method: Vocal-fold vibrations were analyzed for 28 children (aged 5-11 years) and 28 adults (aged 21-45 years)…

Dr. Montessori's words from the 1946 London Lectures describe principles of intelligence and character, the work of the hand, and movement with a purpose as being integral to self-construction. The perfection of movement is spiritual, says Dr. Montessori. Repetition of practical life exercises are exercises in movement with the dignity of human…

This simple, first-published article by Mario Montessori was written in Kodaikanal, India, and reveals a great Montessori truth that has never been so explicit: There are developmental stages for practical life that cross over into nature study and living experiences. Although more abstract, the second plane has a strong practical life component…

Preschoolers who explore objects haptically often fail to recognize those objects in subsequent visual tests. This suggests that children may represent qualitatively different information in vision and haptics and/or that children's haptic perception may be poor. In this study, 72 children (2 1/2-5 years of age) and 20 adults explored unfamiliar…

Adults vary their haptic exploratory behavior reliably with variation both in the sensory input and in the task goals. Little is known about the development of these connections between perceptual goals and exploratory behaviors. A total of 36 children ages 3, 4, and 5 years and 20 adults completed a haptic intramodal match-to-sample task.…

Children move the instant they are born and the moment they wake up every morning. Moving is one of the first and most important ways infants and toddlers explore and learn about the world, and this process continues as they grow and develop. Research shows that movement and exercise can spark the growth of new brain cells and facilitate learning…

Learning to walk is a dynamic process requiring the fine coordination, assembly, and balancing of many body segments at once. For the young walker, coordinating all these behavioral levels may be quite daunting. In this study, we examine the whole-body strategies to which infants resort to produce their first independent steps and progress over…

The author is naturally a kinesthetic learner. As a child she was steeped in the wilds of seashore, fields, and woods in which she was free to roam, explore, and imagine in a deeply sensual, movement-oriented world. Because of these first experiences of freedom of movement and spontaneity in the highly intense natural world, she found the…

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of early childhood stunting (height for age 2SD or more below reference values) and interventions on fine motor abilities at 11 to 12 years, and the relationship between fine motor abilities and school achievement and intelligence. Method: A cohort of stunted children who had participated in…

Background: The quality of very preterm infants' spontaneous movements at 11 to 16 weeks post-term age is a powerful predictor of their later neurological status. This study investigated whether early spontaneous movements also have predictive value for the intellectual and behavioural problems that children born very preterm often experience.…

In two studies, we investigated infants' preference for infant-directed (ID) action or "motionese" (Brand, Baldwin & Ashburn, 2002) relative to adult-directed (AD) action. In Study 1, full-featured videos were shown to 32 6- to 8-month-olds, who demonstrated a strong preference for ID action. In Study 2, infants at 6-8 months (n= 28) and 11-13…