In the current study, we investigate the implementation of a musical workshop in an early childhood education setting. The workshop is based on a shared space for musical creativity (the Active Musical Room) comprising six different musically relevant objects, which toddlers were free to explore and play with. Inspired by Delalande's…

The level of awareness regarding sensory concepts was explored in a convenience sample of 25 early childhood educators in an urban environment. This survey design measured early childhood educators self-report of sensory activities offered within their classrooms and independently scored by two occupational therapists practicing in pediatrics.…

An increasing number of findings suggest that cognition is grounded in sensorimotor experiences. Research suggests that fine motor skills (FMS) link to cognitive abilities. Existing studies, however, lack conceptual and methodological differentiation regarding FMS and little is known about the directional nature of links. In study 1, we measured…

This quasi-experimental study explored the effects of sensorimotor strategies on improving attention and in-seat behavior of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Using a single subject, B-A-B-A design with a sensorimotor phase (B) and non-sensorimotor phase (A), duration of attention and in-seat behavior were recorded and analyzed…

Clinical Question: Would a preschool-aged child with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) benefit from a singular approach--such as motor planning, sensory cueing, linguistic and rhythmic--or a combined approach in order to increase intelligibility of spoken language? Method: Systematic Review. Study Sources: ASHA Wire, Google Scholar, Speech Bite.…

Sensitivity to variations in the spacing of features in faces and a class of nonface objects (i.e., frontal images of cars) was tested in 3- and 4-year-old children and adults using a delayed or simultaneous two-alternative forced choice matching-to-sample task. In the adults, detection of spacing information was robust against exemplar…

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of music and music + instruction on task-oriented behaviors in preschool children with ASD within individual gross motor movement settings. Five preschool children (four boys; one girl) diagnosed with ASD attending a Midwestern private preschool for children with ASD served as participants. The…

Imitation requires the imitator to solve the correspondence problem--to translate visual information from modelled action into matching motor output. It has been widely accepted for some 30 years that the correspondence problem is solved by a specialized, innate cognitive mechanism. This is the conclusion of a poverty of the stimulus argument,…

Human toddlers learn about objects through second-by-second, minute-by-minute sensory-motor interactions. In an effort to understand how toddlers' bodily actions structure the visual learning environment, mini-video cameras were placed low on the foreheads of toddlers, and for comparison also on the foreheads of their parents, as they jointly…

When learning object function, infants must detect relations among features--for example, that squeezing is associated with squeaking or that objects with wheels roll. Previously, Perone and Oakes (2006) found 10-month-old infants were sensitive to relations between object appearances and actions, but not to relations between appearances and…

Since Broca's studies on language processing, cortical functional specialization has been considered to be integral to efficient neural processing. A fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience concerns the type of learning that is required for functional specialization to develop. To address this issue with respect to the development of neural…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether participation in sensorimotor activities by preschool children involving their own bodily balance while walking on a beam over the floor has an effect on their understanding of the mechanical equilibrium of a balance beam. The balance beam consisted of a horizontal stick balancing around its…

Early childhood educators use several learning centers in a classroom to target growth in different developmental areas, but as a preschool teacher, the author was always impressed by how children addressed multiple areas of development at the sensory table. Understanding that sensory experiences were important for preschoolers, the author wanted…

These experiments explored the role of prior experience in 12- to 18-month-old infants' tool-directed actions. In Experiment 1, infants' use of a familiar tool (spoon) to accomplish a novel task (turning on lights inside a box) was examined. Infants tended to grasp the spoon by its handle even when doing so made solving the task impossible (the…

In this article, the author presents the 12 benefits of playing as a reference and guide for teachers in helping young children develop their cognitive skills, motor ability, socio-emotional, and academic development during play time. The following 12 benefits are described: (1) Play Enhances Bodily Gracefulness; (2) Play Promotes Social Skills;…