Batting or striking with a long-handled implement is an important fundamental motor skill used in several lifetime activities. This article outlines basic movement concepts that are developed through batting and provides recommendations that can serve as both curricular options for physical education and a potential homework idea for kids to…

Now in a second edition, this popular resource shows teachers and childcare providers how to work with young children based on current neuroscience research. Revised and expanded, it contains a wealth of practical and specific activities and materials to use with infants and toddlers to enhance growth and development. For each activity presented,…

The preschool years are essential for developing physically active lifestyles and social-emotional well-being. This article introduces the PASS (Physical Activity and Social Skills) physical education program, which identifies specific ways to develop fundamental motor skills, provide physical activity opportunities, and promote social-emotional…

Perceptual development which depends on ability of learning and maturity, is the most important process of mental development. It is commonly believed that the mental development of children is limited due to city life. Children can learn perceptual elements through movement participation. This improves the cognitive development, which triggers…

This report summarizes research about development during the first 3 years of life. It highlights research in domains that are foundational for later school readiness and success, including: (1) perceptual, motor, and physical development; (2) social and emotional development; (3) approaches to learning; (4) language and communication; and (5)…

This new text consists of parts of Bornstein and Lamb's Developmental Science, 6th edition along with new introductory material that as a whole provides a cutting edge and comprehensive overview of cognitive development. Each of the world-renowned contributors masterfully introduces the history and systems, methodologies, and measurement and…

Brain Gym[R] (BG; BGI, 2008) is a popular commercial program sold by Brain Gym[R] International (BGI). Making extravagant claims for improved intellectual and physical development, it is used in more than 80 countries. While BGI's claims are persuasive, to date there is little empirical evidence validating the approach. We examine some theoretical…

Research indicates that gender influences how children learn. Those findings do not necessarily mean that boys learn one way and girls another. Still, there are significant differences with respect to gender and how our brains develop. Researchers have found that no single area of development influences those gender differences: rather, a…

Reviews Greenough, Black, and Wallace's (1987) conceptual framework for understanding the effects of early experience and sensitive periods on development, and illustrates the applicability of their model with recent data on the consequences for animals and human infants of the acquistion of self-produced locomotion. (BN)

Investigated the relationship between sex hormones and spatial performance among adolescents treated with sex steroids for delayed puberty. Found that spatial performance varied according to gender but did not vary with levels of actively circulating sex steroids. Reviewed physiological mechanisms, developmental periods, and past empirical work…

Discusses the use of a dynamic approach to explain how young children master motor skills and perform an array of cognitive feats including word learning. Introduces a perspective that is a departure from established scientific theories of the mind. Argues that a child's physical, mental, and social lives arise out of a shifting interplay between…

Play can become a truly significant learning experience for all our youngsters if educators will pioneer in making adventure the key word in our elementary school playgrounds. (Author)

Investigated concurrent validity of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) with Native American primary-grade children. Significantly low General Cognitive Index indicates that the MSCA with Native American children is not recommended for psychodiagnostic purposes. However, perceptual-performance and motor scales may provide useful…

Most vision screening today concerns itself only with the physical phase of vision, consequently the relationship of vision to learning becomes slighted. Rather, vision should be discussed as it operates when learning takes place through seeing. Vision as it operates for learning is a very complex process--it has physical (acuity), physiological…

Work supported by a grant from the Children's Bureau, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.