Background: Assessing children's movement skill competence objectively is resource and time intensive. Family childcare providers (FCCPs) are with young children for most of a normal weekday and may have an understanding of their motor skill competence. Objective: This study examined how well FCCPs can report on preschoolers' motor skills. Method:…

The purpose of the present study is to examine the properties of a curriculum-based pre-referral screening tool. According to the current Greek preschool curriculum, preschoolers' participation is evaluated across five core axes, namely Play, Routines, Daily Activities, Explorations, and Organized Activities. Teacher evaluations sorted 201…

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore cognitive performance and visual motor integration, and investigate the relationship between them in preschool children in a community. Forty-nine participants were selected by stratified random sampling from a local community school and community child development center in Thailand. The instruments…

People of all ages can appreciate and engage in the occupation of music. Music can be enjoyed through listening, playing an instrument, singing, and dancing. It has significance in many people's lives; however, few intervention programs outside the field of music therapy exist that capitalize on the therapeutic potential of music in pediatric…

Aim: This program evaluation examined the effects of occupational therapy (OT)-led fine motor centers (FMCs) on the fine motor skills of typically-developing preschool-aged children. Methods: This program evaluation was completed with 29 children from two preschool Great Start Readiness Program classrooms. The experimental group received OT-led…

Object word learning can be based on infant-related factors such as their manual actions and socio-linguistic factors such as parental input. Specific input for spatial features (i.e., size, shape, features of objects) can be related to object word comprehension in early vocabulary development. In a longitudinal study, we investigated whether fine…

Starting from the preschool period, children need to grow up as individuals with high academic skills, academic enablers and respond positively to their social situations. Academic skills and academic enablers together constitute academic competence. The positive reaction of children to the problems they face constitutes social information…

Many differences exist between preschool and kindergarten classrooms, including the type and time spent on fine motor activities. Children at risk for developmental delays and learning challenges as they transition to kindergarten often require direct support during preschool to learn new skills needed for kindergarten. This study expanded the…

Fifty-one 23-to-55-month-old-infants faced two apparatuses that required the use of a rigid (box apparatus) or flexible (hose apparatus) stick-like tool to retrieve a toy stuck inside. Before attempting the extraction, however, they had to pick the only one tool (of three) on display that had the appropriate rigidity/flexibility to be effective.…

Purpose: Cleft palate is one of the most common birth defects in the United States. Most of these children receive speech therapy by preschool and school-based clinicians. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive tutorial for speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) regarding treatment techniques and principles for children…

Children's drawings of common object categories become dramatically more recognizable across childhood. What are the major factors that drive developmental changes in children's drawings? To what degree are children's drawings a product of their changing internal category representations versus limited by their visuomotor abilities or their…

In order to keep up with the speed of science and technology in today's conditions, it is important for human beings to constantly renew themselves and adapt to the changing world and living conditions. In this content, education plays a significant role, and art education, in particular, hold a pioneering role in nurturing civilized individuals.…

Substantial evidence exists suggesting that access to articulatory gestures during instruction improves students' phonological awareness skills, but researchers have yet to explore the role of articulatory gestures in initial phonics instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine if visual access to articulatory gestures (i.e., mouth cues)…

Extensive evidence and theory suggest that the development of motor skills during infancy and early childhood initiates a "developmental cascade" for cognitive abilities, such as reading and math. Motor skills are closely connected with the development of spatial cognition, an ability that supports deductive reasoning. Despite the…

This study investigated factors that are associated with the creative motor skills of young children. We recruited through random sampling 233 typically developing children attending preschool or kindergarten in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. We administered a "General Information Form" to gather the children's demographic characteristics and…