Background: The teaching strategies of modeling and the use of cue words are employed by both experienced and inexperienced teachers. While these strategies have received some attention in the literature, the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of the resultant change in the quality or kinematics of the motor skill performance has been limited. Purpose: To investigate the influence of cue words, when given independently and in conjunction with a modeled performance, on the qualitative or process characteristics (kinematics) of a motor skill. Participants and setting: Thirty kindergarten children participated in this study from a rural school in southern USA. Research design: A repeated measures design was employed to expose the participants to several teaching methodologies. Random assignment to order of methodology presentation was utilized. Data collection: Participants were pre-tested on the horizontal jump, initiated by the command, "jump as far as you can". The participants were then randomly assigned to either the cue word only condition or the model condition, and asked to jump again. Finally, the participants were exposed to both the cue words and the model together and asked to jump again. Data analysis: Two (shoulder angle and knee angle) Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) were used to determine differences between teaching strategy groups and conditions. Each assessment set produced data for a 2 x 3 (strategy x condition) mixed design with repeated measures on the last factor. Findings: The shoulder angle noted a significant difference between the pre and the cue word only conditions (p less than 0.01) and between the pre and the model and cue condition, for the cue-only participants (p less than 0.01). However, statistical analysis of the maximum relative knee flexion angle prior to the participant's feet leaving the ground yielded no significant difference (F(2,15) = 2.887, p = 0.087, [eta][superscript 2] = 0.278) across the three trial conditions. Conclusions: Results indicated that cue words used independently or in conjunction with a visual model influenced the kinematics of the skill. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)