Enhancing executive function in children and adolescents can have significant positive impact on their current and future daily lives. Upregulation of executive function associated with motor skill acquisition suggests that motor learning scenarios provide valuable developmental opportunities to optimize executive function. The present systematic…

Background: Perceptual motor development is crucial during early childhood and not properly addressing it in physical education (PE) can be detrimental. Aim: To determine the effect of a South African curriculum-aligned PE intervention on the visual-motor integration (VMI), visual perception (VP) and motor coordination (MC) of 6-year-old children.…

Environments where children move about provide affordances that play a significant role in their development. This research presents the Affordances for Motor Behavior of Schoolchildren assessment tool, which aims to assess the interdependent systems, such as home, school, and sports activities, that can influence 6- to 10-year-old children's…

To harness the complexity of their high-dimensional bodies during sensorimotor development, infants are guided by patterns of freezing and freeing of degrees of freedom. For instance, when learning to reach, infants free the degrees of freedom in their arm proximodistally, that is, from joints that are closer to the body to those that are more…

The results of this study suggest that one might question the locomotor developmental level of the child with a learning disability. (Author)

The author notes that teachers who continually require students to sit still and stop talking apparently prefer to teach a grove of trees rather than a classroom full of students. School environments should be designed to enhance the development of student brains -- and student brains are about movement, not motionless stagnation. 21st century…

Sports-related tool use abilities in children were investigated within a neo-Piagetian framework of development. The object was to establish whether development in the motor domain proceeds in a "stage-like" fashion. A model was developed which suggested how general and precise structural changes might manifest themselves in the sub-domain of tool…

This report is a collection of five papers emphasizing the significance of the young child's motor development. Each paper addresses at least one of four objectives: (1) to help develop clearer insights concerning the significance of physical activity in the early years of childhood; (2) to examine the existing body of knowledge from research and…

This article describes the playground of the future. Its design would promote both defined and creative play opportunities for all children including the handicapped. Also discussed is the equipment that would be useful in developing all children's perceptual motor abilities in 11 different areas. (JM)

Discusses the renaissance of motor skill acquisition studies that are affording new insights into the processes by which infants and children learn to control their bodies. The article explains how studies are now focusing less on how children perform and more on how the components cooperate to produce stability or engender change, thus making…

A description is given of an ongoing collaborative research effort consisting of a series of studies with 3- to 5-year-old children, designed for the purpose of: (1) identifying factors contributing to motor learning/performance during the development years, i.e., psychological, sociological, and experiential variables; (2) determining the…

This book deals with the following areas: (a) basic motor development and readiness of the young child for movement activities, (b) learning and developmental theories commonly used in early childhood education, (c) instructional approaches for using movement as a learning modality, and (d) general educational implications which can be ascertained…

Notes benefits of movement experiences to young children. Explains and discusses developing and refining movement patterns and developing perceptual abilities so that sensory information can be used to help refine movement skills. Includes an annotated bibliography of 15 pertinent references. (SB)

Sensory and motor experiences are essential in childhood and are the foundation for all higher level learning and skill acquisition. This paper examines how young children make sense of sensory experiences, focusing on infants and toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children. It also looks at the importance of creating an environment rich in…