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 objective of this study was to evaluate gross motor competence and growth spurt in Canadian youth. Eighty-two children (38 boys, 44 girls) were assessed over a time period of five years. Growth rate was measured quarterly; motor competence was evaluated once per year using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Peak height velocity…

Assessing children's movement competence (MC) offers numerous benefits for academics, practitioners, clinicians and children, allowing individuals to meet children's developmental needs and improve their MC. Yet, there is concern that currently available assessment tools only provide a single plane (fundamental movement skills) perspective of a…

Professionals who work with children presenting intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are concerned with their motor development and their rhythmic perception. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between a motor performance test and a music rhythmic test that measures…

The current longitudinal study used data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to examine a model of development that emphasizes early caregiving environments as predictors of social emotional competence (including classroom competence). This path analysis…

This study examined the development of flexibility and abstraction in preschool children by using a newly designed Pattern Completion Task (PCT) and the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST). In the PCT, children were presented with an incomplete pattern consisting of different-colored shapes and were asked to select the colored shape that…

The Predominantly Inattentive (PI) and Combined (CB) subtypes of AD/HD differ in cognitive tempo, age of onset, gender ratio, and comorbidity, yet a differentiating endophenotype has not been identified. The aim of this study was to test rigorously diagnosed PI, CB, and typical children on measures selected for their potential to reveal…

The authors evaluate two tests, the "memory code" and the "image generation," which were given to a group of 33 seven-year-old children to measure their imagery performance while reading and listening to prose. Test results and practical implications for education are discussed. (Author/DB)

An assessment was made of 5- and 8-year-old children's performance on a short-term memory task under two auditory and two visual distraction conditions, as well as under a nondistraction condition. Performance under nondistraction was found to be superior to that under distraction (p<.001), indicating that the extraneous stimuli had a generally…

An adaptation of the "Stages of Sensorimotor Intelligence in the Child" was used in a longitudinal study of the sensorimotor behavior acquisitions of 24 healthy middle-class infants. Rate of behavior acquisition, variability in behavior performance and relationships between subtests were analyzed. Some comparisons with previous studies are…

The relationship to first grade ability and achievement levels of children with day-care attendance for as long as five years prior to entry into the first grade was studied. In particular, the study was concerned with the potentially harmful effects of prolonged program attendance itself as a form of maternal separation rather than with speed and…

Assessment of the overarching self-regulatory mechanisms, or executive functions, in any age group is challenging, in part due to the complexity of this domain, in part due to their dynamic essence, and in part due to the inextricable links between these central processes and the associated domain-specific processes, such as language, motor…

Eighty subjects 4, 6, 8, and 10 years of age inductively identified partially uncovered silhouettes of three simple pictures. Subjects removed as few as possible covering pieces, according to their own strategies, to correctly name the pictures. Performance generally improved with increased age on the two dependent measures, inductively inferring…

This competency-based preservice home economics teacher education module on the child and the economically depressed area family is the second in a set of three modules on human development in economically depressed areas (EDA). (This set is part of a larger set of sixty-seven modules on the Management Approach to Teaching Consumer and Homemaking…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether particular aspects of movement control influenced the performance of 2-year-old children on a standard developmental test, and thus influenced assessments of intellectual progress based on that test. Six cerebral-palsied (CP) children were compared with six children not suffering motor system…