Research has indicated that one significant deficiency in the intellectual capabilities of disadvantaged children is a disability in abstract thinking. Although all very young children lack this ability, the environment of the middle class child provides an opportunity so that as this child matures, the ability to think in abstract terms naturally…

The purpose of this study was to see if a change in environment affected the rate of sensorimotor development in infants. First a control group of institutionally-reared infants aged 1 to 6 months was observed to determine average age of visually directed reaching, visual exploration, visual accommodation, and the blink response. Then the…

This paper reports on the development and validation of an instrument for recording haptic exploratory behavior through detailed examination of exploratory search strategies of young children. Individual differences within age level were investigated, as well as the extent to which information processing capabilities for haptic perception are…

Papers and discussants' comments from a symposium on issues concerning infants' reactions to strangers are presented. Researchers agreed that there is a developmental shift in infant behavior at 7 to 9 months of age when the infant becomes more cautious in approaching strangers. However, investigators hypothesize that the presence of the mother,…

Presented are numerous motor development activities for sensory impaired, severely and profoundly mentally retarded, and multiply handicapped mentally retarded students of all ages. Background information is provided on program objectives and administration, the multiply handicapped child, motor development, and methods of movement training.…

Though previous research has attempted to correlate television viewing with educational outcomes, little research has been done to establish the links between modes of presentation, individual styles of learning, and achievement. Eye movements, for instance, are markedly responsive to differences in presentation, especially to such factors as the…

In an effort to teach all children to read as early as possible, educators are failing to teach the basic prerequisites. A model identifies the basic prerequisites for the development of reading skills in young children and suggests a hierarchy of goal acquisitions. The prerequisites are: (1) language development and verbal meaning, (2) perceptual…

This inquiry demonstrated how the educational assumptions underlying the Montessori Method can be applied to constructing educational objectives and evaluating programs for culturally disadvantaged children. Initially, it was shown how these assumptions concentrate upon significant areas of human development. Then, information about…

Egocentrism was investigated as an influencing factor in the development of the perceptual abilities needed to understand and interpret topographic maps. Attainment of an adequate concept of space, and the ability to accurately perceive spatial relationships (perspectives) are considered fundamental. Piaget and Inhelder identified three stages of…

The kindergarten Learning to Learn Program was designed to help children acquire flexible strategies for dealing with challenges and problems. The pupils in both experimental and control groups were from a low income black neighborhood. The program was organized around a carefully planned sequence of language and mathematical games and game-like…

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the parents' role in their child's visual guidance program, the philosophies behind the program, and the teacher's responsibility to child vision. The first chapter, on parent involvement, instructs them to provide an environment to stimulate intellectual growth and stresses the importance of the…

A scheme is presented for the development of perception and learning in which a hierarchy of skills begins with innate response systems and progresses through gross motor activities to more specialized motor systems represented by eye-hand coordination. The next stage of development, the control of ocular muscles, is discussed and the development…

This guide is being used in the Individualized Motor-Perceptual Study to determine whether working directly with kindergarten children to improve performance on motor-perceptual tasks will affect reading ability at the end of grades one, two, and three. The 5-year project involves six schools. In this guide, there are tips for teaching, suggested…

Fifteen children from each of three kindergarten classes were randomly chosen to participate in this study and were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: (1) a group that received a perceptual training program; (2) a group that received augmented attention but no program; and (3) a control group that received no special program nor…

Determination of the effectiveness of visual perceptual training upon word recognition and subsequent reading achievement of the culturally disadvantaged first grader was this study's goal. Forty-eight pupils in two sections of the first grade of an elementary school in Louisiana tested the hypotheses that no difference would be revealed in the…