Through play and physical activities (PAs), children have many opportunities to develop gross motor skills that require the use of large muscles for movement and control. Young children use gross motor skills as they engage in daily tasks such as sitting upright, maintaining control and balance while seated, walking down the hallway, moving…

During the preschool years children develop many new skills, including gross motor abilities, which serve as a foundation for school readiness skills in areas such as language, socialization and cognition. Like other domains, motor skill development does not happen without practice opportunities. That is, it requires multiple opportunities whereby…

We assessed potential factors associated with "current" or "ever" self-injurious behaviors, reported in the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, among children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 692) from the Study to Explore Early Development. Data on factors examined were obtained from questionnaires, standardized clinical…

Purpose: Stuttering involves a breakdown in the speech motor system. We address whether stuttering in its early stage is specific to the speech motor system or whether its impact is observable across motor systems. Method: As an extension of Olander, Smith, and Zelaznik (2010), we measured bimanual motor timing performance in 115 children: 70…

This paper reviews research describing developmentally typical and atypical repetitive motor movements of children with and without disabilities. It then reports findings of a study of nine preschool-aged children with developmental delay and atypical stereotypies. Predictors of repetitive movements included level of functioning, age, ambulation,…

This paper describes and evaluates a gymnastic program for children (ages 4-9) with autism and related developmental disorders. An introductory section reviews the literature on characteristics of children with autism and discusses how traditional education is inadequate for such children. Review of the literature on effective interventions notes…

The handbook provides information and assessment measures for the development of individualized programs for developmentally delayed children from birth to 6 years old. Introductory information includes how to use both the assessment system and the instructional program (contained in Volume II) and the development of an individualized educational…

Preschool programs can and should be designed to incorporate comprehensive health and physical education. This monograph presents information which is useful to adults interested in increasing their knowledge of health, movement, and physical education as these areas relate to young children. The publication is organized into 14 chapters as…

The guide presents instructional materials for teaching developmentally delayed children from birth to 6 years old. The following five instructional areas are covered (with sample activities in parentheses): gross motor (demonstrates a tonic-neck reflex, demonstrates ability to bear almost full weight, and crawls backward down three steps); fine…