Early exploratory activities enable children to develop motor skills. Boys and girls must be provided similar experiences in movement. Teachers should provide experiences in which children can be successful. Situations in which children initially fail, but later learn to persist and try alternative solutions, are valuable. (BC)

Mothers of 23 infants with disabilities predicted their child's performance on developmental measures with accuracy levels comparable to those of parents of preschool children without disabilities. Mothers were more accurate in predicting motor performance than cognitive performance. There was a negative relationship between initial maternal…

Evaluation of the Kent Scoring Adaptation, which determines developmental ages in several domains based on an infant's performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, with 27 at-risk infants supported the concurrent validity of the cognitive, language, and, to a degree, social domains of the Kent procedure but not the fine and gross motor…

A study investigated the effects of a neurobehavioral motor intervention on intentional communication development of four children (ages 1 to 3) with neuromotor impairments. Related communication skills linked to motor targets were observed. All subjects increased the use of communication behaviors following implementation of the motor-skill…

Summarizes research findings that challenge long-standing theories of infant cognition and motor development and proposes alternative theoretical models to describe skill acquisition during the first several years of life. Findings are discussed with respect to research in the area of infant speech physiology and production. (Author/CR)

Reviews a range of material written about the use of the Alexander Technique in educating children to acquire better kinesthetic awareness of balance and body movement, and introduces briefly the theoretical principles underpinning Alexander's teaching. Presents curriculum issues for young children and the teacher awareness required to educate…

Findings from a prospective longitudinal study of 46 boys with fragile X syndrome (ages 24-72 months) found that, although children varied widely, overall development was significantly delayed to approximately half of the rate of typical children. At every age tested, motor and adaptive development was higher than communication and cognitive…

Reviews the theoretical bases and research related to sport and game instruction and sport expertise development. Literature that informs practice on sport and game teaching stems from various perspectives, including studies using an intervention perspective in pedagogy and studies describing the development of sport expertise over time. (SM)

Thirty-six children identified with small expressive vocabularies at age 20-34 months were followed up yearly and tested for expressive language skills in second grade. Of 10 possible predictor variables, only socioeconomic status and early expressive language skills predicted expressive language outcome in second grade with a slight contribution…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of early maternal touch to the neurodevelopmental status of low birth weight (LBW) infants. One hundred and eight LBW infants and their mothers were videotaped during a typical feeding when the infant was 3 months old. This tape was used to analyze both the mother's touch and other facets…

In the present study, an attempt was made to examine the nature and persistence of bilateral transfer of a throwing skill for a large sample of male and female children. One hundred sixty children ages 6, 8, 10, and 12 years were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group with an equal number of boys and girls in each group. The…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a creative movement program on gross motor skills of preschool children. Sixty children between the ages of 3 to 5 were drawn from the population of a preschool in Taichung, Taiwan. An experimental pretest-posttest control-group design was utilized. The children enrolled in the…

For many children, especially those with reading difficulties, a motor-kinesthetic learning activity may be an effective tool to teach complex concepts. With this in mind, the authors developed and tested a game designed to teach fourth- to sixth-grade children some basic principles of nervous system function by allowing the children themselves to…

Best practice is based on knowledge--not on beliefs or guesses--about how children learn and develop. This volume contains 20 overviews of research on aspects of young children's social, emotional, cognitive, or physical development, as well as how the findings can be applied in the classroom. Originally "Research in Review" articles in NAEYC's…

The benefits of movement are enhanced when children with disabilities move with their nondisabled peers. This study sought to determine the effects of a motor development training program on child care providers in order to promote movement-based activities and perceived competence in this area. Twenty child care providers were assigned to either…