A study compared the motor coordination of 26 Japanese children (ages 6-15) with Asperger syndrome and 14 with learning disabilities using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children. Although no relationship was found between intellectual and motor function, both groups demonstrated motor delay. Children with autism had poorer ball skills. (CR)

To establish baseline data on South African children's behavior, observed 80 children at home and interviewed the children's primary caregiver. Gathered data on patterns of interaction and language use, content of activity, and use of objects. Presents general biographical and behavioral data, notes gender differences, and compares this data to…

Baumeister's (1968) hypothesis that mentally retarded children exhibit depressed levels of performance and greater intra-individual variability when compared to intellectually non-handicapped children of similar chronological age was investigated. Eight 10-year-old educable mentally retarded boys and 16 non-handicapped boys, matched by either…

Reports the results of a study designed to test the importance of manipulative experiences with science materials in the attainment of science process skills for kindergarten and third grade students. (JR)

An interview taped in 1978 with Constance Kamii, a child development researcher who studied Piagetian theory at the University of Geneva, is presented in this document. When asked what teachers of young children should keep in mind, Dr. Kamii talked about teaching to the child's level and cautioned against dealing with symbolic materials, advising…

A MAIN PROBLEM ARISING IN THE STUDY OF CATEGORIZING BEHAVIOR IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN BY MEANS OF SORTING PROCEDURES WAS THAT PERFORMANCE APPEARED TO BE VERY MUCH A FUNCTION OF THE CHILD'S COMPREHENSION OF THE PARTICULAR VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS EMPLOYED BY THE EXPERIMENTER IN PRESENTING THE TASK. THE SPECIFIC AIMS OF THE FIRST STUDY WERE TO INVESTIGATE…

In order to understand learners and players in relation to environments typically found in sport, it is necessary to first understand the individual as an information processor who must sample information from the environment, interpret it, organize or select an appropriate motor response, and execute that response. One of the most difficult…

Responses of itinerant, resource room, and residential school teachers to a questionnaire regarding adaptive hand function of blind, visually-impaired, and visually/multiply-handicapped 2- to 19-year-olds (N=148) indicated that physiological integrity was not a sufficient condition for development of adaptive hand function, suggesting that manual…

Maintains that young children learn to think when they act on objects, thus developing what Piaget refers to as physical and logico-mathematical knowledge. Teachers can encourage thinking/mental action by creating situations that are personally meaningful to the children, by providing decision-making opportunities, and by providing opportunities…

Describes materials mastery and symbolic development as two discrete but related processes that preschool children learn. Uses the preschool setting to identify the developmental stages of construction play. (AS)

Three experiments involved imagining the result of either an array rotating relative to a fixed viewer or a viewer rotating relative to a fixed array. The data suggested that adults use literal, concrete strategies to solve these problems. (Author/PN)

In this study self-concept, as measured by subjects' self-ratings of mechanical ability, was correlated to scores on the Pourchot Mechanical Manipulation Test of bilateral hand tool dexterity. Significant relationships were found. Subjects, ages 10-84, differed in results by age, sex, and mechanical experience. (SJL)

Children, ages 7 and 11, were asked to manipulate strips of cardboard into outlines of ideas and objects. Responses were categorized to show if novel configurations appeared and developed and if this phenomenon was a function of creative thinking as measured by Torrance's Figural Test, Form B. (Author/SJL)

The study explored the concept of space through the tactual discrimination of household objects in 48 4-to-7-year-old blind, partially sighted, and sighted children. (PHR)

Three third graders with a history of low achievement in math were first given verbal (abstract) instruction in solving word problems. Students were then introduced to manipulatives instruction using Cuisenaire rods to set up word problems. Students exhibited immediate and sustained improvement on subsequent probes administered without…