Teachers are sometimes puzzled and frustrated by some children's difficulties and troubles as these children respond aggressively when feeling that peers crowd too close or seem 'threatening'. This article provides a variety of bodily games to help children become more aware of how their bodies and muscles work. The activities suggested are…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of physical education based intervention program, aiming to help the development of writing skills of primary school children, on fine motor skill precision and fine motor skill integration. A total of 104 primary school children at grade 1 with at least 2 years of preschool education…

The present study aimed to investigate the predictions of challenge point theory (2004) by comparing challenging and non-challenging games groups in developing manipulative fundamental motor skills. Thirty children, aged 4-6 years, from one of the kindergartens of Tehran were divided into the groups. The games were similar in both groups; however,…

Early childhood is an opportune time to develop physical literacy, acquire movement skills, and promote physical activity. Little is known about early childhood educators' competence (ECEs) and confidence in physical literacy knowledge and its application to practice. The purpose of this research was to examine the competence and confidence of…

Previous studies have documented that individual differences in fine and gross motor skills are associated with executive function (EF) skills. This study used an experimental design to test whether participating in cognitively challenging motor skills activities was causally related to improvements in motor skills and two key indicators of school…

Efforts to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in school-aged children are associated with improved health, cognitive, and academic outcomes. However, questions remain about whether similar benefits are observed in early childhood. We hypothesized that motor competence, not MVPA, would be related to improved cognitive and…

The negative impacts of COVID 19 on children's holistic development have been reported by researchers around the world. This qualitative study explored teachers' and parents' perspectives on the impact of physical/social distancing and school closure policies on children's socioemotional development. The study was conducted in fall 2020. The…

Movement is essential for learning. Previous research explored the relationship between movement and academic performance, however, evidence regarding the specific gross motor skills related to reading and spelling is lacking. The current study, therefore, investigated the effect a perceptual-motor intervention had on the relationship between…

The current study was conducted to investigate the contribution of the forest school approach to the development of preschool children. In this connection, the study group is comprised of 7 pre-schoolers aged at 48-60 months. The sample of the current study was determined by using the convenience sampling method, one of the purposive sampling…

The purpose of this secondary analysis of state-collected data was to investigate developmental outcomes of preschool special education (PSE) services in a statewide cohort of participating children (n = 17,828). In line with federal performance indicators for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act early childhood programs, the outcome of…

A high prevalence of medical conditions affects the typical motor development of learners in the West Coast District of South Africa. Given the strong correlation between motor skill performance and academic achievement, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of motor skill impairment among Grade R learners (5-7-year olds) enrolled in public…

This article introduces a sequence of movement tasks to teach one-handed sidearm striking with a short implement to preK- to second-grade children. Although one-handed sidearm striking is a complex skill, learning this skill during early childhood would expand future opportunities for children to engage in various lifetime physical activities.

Early childhood education programs (ECE) invest in assessments of classroom quality to enable accountability and to enact efforts towards quality improvement. The "Early Childhood Environment Rating System -- Revised" (ECERS-R) and "Classroom Assessment Scoring System" (CLASS) are two widely used classroom quality assessments…

The aim of the research was to analyse the level of movement skills in pre-school aged children in context of stimulation to physical activities at school and in the family background. The research group consisted of 62 pre-school aged children (28 boys, 37 girls) with average age 5,6 years. TGMD-2 test was used for the assessment of the quality…

Kinder Tools was developed as a Response to Intervention approach (RTI) to help students in kindergarten improve and develop their fine motor and visual motor perceptual skills within the first three months of entering kindergarten. Some students enter kindergarten ready to learn, while other students struggle with skill development and learning…