Pediatric developmental assessments from the early 1900s are different from those used more often today. Certain present-day pediatric expectations of fine motor skills, specifically those of pre-writing strokes, appear more advanced when compared to those of the past. In the mid-20th century, child developmentalists described the sequences in…

The manual is intended to help parents and professionals understand the motor development of Down's syndrome infants and young children. Following an overview of motor development, gross and fine motor landmarks are presented along with exercises and activities to promote their development in infancy, toddlerhood, and childhood. Each landmark is…

The first of a three volume report on a project to develop and apply quantitative procedures to measure motor and sensory/motor growth in nonhandicapped and severely/multiply handicapped children presents 17 papers delineating ways to measure motor function. The following motoric functions are considered: visual fixation, visual tracking, visual…

This study compared the skills performance of 60 children, ages 3 to 5, with speech and language delays on the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS) with that of national norms on the PDMS. It found that the children with speech and language delays performed the PDMS gross motor skills significantly lower than the norm at each age level. The…

This book presents a comprehensive and detailed theory of early human development based on the principles of dynamic systems theory. It raises fundamental questions about prevailing assumptions in the field and proposes a new theory of the development of cognition and action, unifying recent advances in dynamic systems theory with current research…

Compared coupling characteristics of clapping simultaneous with walking or galloping, consistency across trials, and phasing variability among 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds. Found that for walk/clap tasks, children adopted adult-like coupling patterns by age 8 and with the same consistency by age 10. Across age, children became less variable in…

A qualitative longitudinal study, first of four parts, compared developmental movement levels and academic learning levels in young children. Subjects were 28 children of various ages who were not working up to grade level but who did not qualify for learning disability services. Parents completed a detailed demographic survey and a neurological…

An investigation examined the use of "preferred speeds" by young children in their response to a timing task. Three groups of boys, 5, 7, and 9 years old, made a simple horizontal arm movement that would end with contacting a microswitch at the same time a light reached the end of the runway. One stimulus traveled at the individual's…

In this supplement to the "K-12 Physical Education Curriculum Guide," developed by the Manitoba Department of Education, the focus is on perceptual-motor programs for children in kindergarten and the first grade. Section I contains a discussion of the rationale for perceptual-motor programs, a curriculum outline, and definitions of terms used in…

Physical education programs at the nursery and elementary school levels should stress the development and refinement of fundamental movement patterns and a wide variety of sport skills instead of dealing with specialized skill development through refined performance experiences. The developmental model of physical education is based on the…

Separate papers discuss: (1) sensory deprivation; (2) effects of high rise housing; (3) clumsy children; (4) screening and labeling "at risk" students; (5) Piaget's conceptual development stages; and (6) movement education. (CP)