An analysis is made of the reciprocal relationship between play and three areas of interaction between the brain and human development: (1) the affective characteristics of play and the brain; (2) developmental theories of cognition and play; and (3) creativity as a continuation of the brain's need for play. (JN)

The task classification scheme suggests that motor skills be categorized as the processing demands placed on a learner, feedback availability, and pacing conditions. Potential learning strategies were identified and defined in relation to the classification scheme. (JN)

The article describes the program used in the Belmont (Massachusetts) public elementary schools involving the Dalcroze Eurhythmics approach to music and movement with special needs children. (SB)

An idea is presented for a class project in motor learning which emphasizes stimulating student involvement in motor learning research. The project enables student to learn about experimental design, experimental control, equipment construction, subject solicitation, and data analysis and to stimulate their critical and logical thinking. (JN)

Research using subjects wearing glasses that allowed them to see a target but not their responding limb or the outcome of movement indicated that there is a relationship between proficiency of performance and variability of target practice. (CJ)

Practice and repetition are necessary for the acquisition of motor skills. Effective practice depends on: (1) a clearly defined goal or purpose; (2) a carefully structured, gamelike progression of practice opportunities; and (3) the provision of feedback or knowledge of the results of the motor performance. (JN)

A training program was undertaken with 12 cultural-familial and 12 organic institutionalized young adults to determine if organic signs on the Bender-Gestalt visual-motor test could be reversed. Significant improvement was obtained. Results are discussed in relation to perceptual-motor regression and its potential for reversibility. (Author/SJL)

Recent findings related to neurological research include: (1) the Proster Theory implies that the brain works by sets of programs or prosters; (2) the Brain Growth Spurts theory defines the growth of the brain in spurts with cycles of rest; and (3) in the Hemispheric Specialization Theory, the left and right hemispheres of the brain have specific…

Ten normally speaking children, 10 having mild misarticulations, and 10 having severe misarticulations, aged seven-eight, were administered unisensory and bisensory processing tasks. Results showed that misarticulating children obtained lower scores than normal children on all bisensory tasks and had larger decrements from unisensory to bisensory…

Reports on a longitudinal study of gross-motor development in 10 congenitally blind children during their first 3 years. Compared to developmental norms for sighted children, five full-term blind children showed slight delays in postural development but greater delays in locomotor development. Five preterm blind children showed major delays in all…

Discusses the renaissance of motor skill acquisition studies that are affording new insights into the processes by which infants and children learn to control their bodies. The article explains how studies are now focusing less on how children perform and more on how the components cooperate to produce stability or engender change, thus making…

Tested children 18 months to 4 years for their ability to relocate a hidden object after self-produced movement around an array of 4 locations. Children encountered no specific difficulty in coordinating dimensions, or they solved the task without recourse to such a system. They also appeared to change strategy when the problem requires more…

Discusses the sensory systems of sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, and equilibrium as tools of children's mental development. (MKR)

Acquisition of the location aspect of American Sign Language signs was examined in nine young hearing infants and toddlers of deaf parents. Sign locations, overall, were produced with 83.5% accuracy. Highly contrasting locations were acquired first. Location played a central role in young children's early sign language acquisition. (Author/DB)

Three experiments examined vision's role in infants' grasping of horizontally and vertically oriented rods. Found that infants differentially oriented their hand regardless of lighting and similar to control conditions where they could see rod and hand throughout reach. Findings suggest that infants may use current sight of object's orientation or…