This study examined the longitudinal relationship between early handwriting skills and the growth of spelling and reading skills in a large sample (N = 569) of 5- to 6-year-old children unselected for ability. The quality of children's handwriting was assessed using five indicators (letter form, slant, rhythm, ability, general appearance).…

A central assumption within the embodied cognition paradigm is that particular action experiences are instrumental in providing children with sensorimotor contingencies that form the foundation for conceptualisation of and, later, communication of mathematical ideas. Digital technology designs that foster specific movements offer promising…

There is a dearth of research in aquatic motor competency, a key requirement for primary physical education in order to become physically literate. This study proposes a new assessment protocol for aquatic motor competence and sets out to examine the validity of the Aquatic Movement Protocol (AMP) in children between 7 and 9 years of age. Testing…

In this research, it was intended to determine the effects of geometrical-mechanical intelligence game activities on the spatial abilities of secondary school seventh grade students. The research was designed according to quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups and conducted with two experimental and two control…

Physical education is a course that integrates knowledge of sports with skill drilling. Augmented Reality (AR)-assisted instruction has infrequently been applied in sport skill drilling. Video-assisted instruction has frequently applied to physical sports; however, it neither involves interactive practice nor embodies both textbook learning and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of relative age on selected biomotoric skills of children in puberty period. The sample of this research consisted of 30 male and 30 female students who have been studying at primary schools and on 9 age period. Identity info was grounded on determining chronologic ages of participants. In…

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain Japanese elementary teacher development experiences in teaching physical education (PE). Participants were eight elementary classroom teachers (six males and two females) (within their first five years of teaching) teaching PE for the first time in Japanese elementary schools. Data sources…

Developmental dyslexia is defined as a specific reading disorder but is also thought to be underpinned by a deficit in motor skills that may well affect handwriting performance. However, the results of studies addressing this issue are not consistent. The present study was, therefore, designed to better understand the functioning of handwriting in…

An external focus of attention and autonomy support are identified as key factors to optimize motor learning; however, research in children is limited. Moreover, research has failed to examine these factors in ecologically valid motor learning settings, like physical education. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of external focus of…

This study examined the links between Israeli teachers' perceptions of children with developmental delay (DD) in special education kindergartens and changes in children's development. Participants were 47 teachers and children diagnosed with DD. At Time 1, teachers' perceptions were assessed via the valence of their narrative about the child and…

This study investigated the influence of various types of Chinese metalinguistic awareness on spelling through the mediation of character reading and copying, using a path model with young Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. A total of 221 Grade 3 Hong Kong ethnic minority students were given a range of measures including Chinese…

Copying characters presented previously (delayed copying) is an important skill in Chinese literacy acquisition. The relations of delayed copying and a set of literacy-related skills (including vocabulary knowledge, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic awareness), visual-orthographic judgment,…

Previous studies have uncovered the relationship between handwriting and mathematics performance, without articulating the underlying cognitive mechanism. With 197 Chinese fourth graders as participants, this study explored the mechanism by which the spacing/spatial relationship in handwriting legibility affects number-line estimation through VMI.…

Aim: To examine the latent structure of the "Test of Gross Motor Development--Third Edition" (TGMD-3) with a bifactor modeling approach. In addition, the study examines the dimensionality and model-based reliability of general and specific contributions of the test's subscales and measurement invariance of the TGMD-3. Methods: A…

Background: Motivation for physical education (PE) is considered an important factor for the development of children's physical skills during PE. According to self-determination theory, satisfaction of the psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence is related to higher levels of autonomous motivation, and lower levels of…