This report is the latest in a series of reports investigating the link between high quality early childhood education and economic development. Longitudinal research from national experts indicates that high quality early childhood programs are likely to impart significant social, academic, and economic benefits to the children who participate,…

Children with motor learning difficulties (MLD) tend to be less physically active than their coordinated peers and one likely consequence is a reduced level of physical fitness. In this study, 52 children with MLD, aged 5 to 8 years, were compared to 52 age- and gender-matched control children across a range of health and skill related fitness…

Following nutritional recovery from severe protein-calorie deficiency, 20 young children evidenced a retarded level of categorization behavior compared to a control group of 19 adequately nourished children from similar socioeconomic background. (NH)

Assessed the relationship between young children's movement skills and their physical activity in early adolescence. Balance, agility, eye-hand coordination, and skinfold thickness were measured in young Mexican and Anglo American. Habitual physical activity was assessed when they were 12 years old. Ethnic differences in movement skills were not…

Protein-energy malnutrition in early childhood, as seen in many developing countries, influences subsequent behavior and intellectual performance. These impairments are associated with further reduction in fine motor skills and academic performance. (Author)

Investigated the accuracy of mothers' judgments about their young children's abilities. Mothers were less accurate in predicting their children's success or failure on social tasks than on cognitive and motor tasks. For all three types of tasks, overestimations of ability were more common than underestimations. (BC)

Used the Rasch measurement model to explore the construct of a general motor ability in 332 5- and 6-year-old Australian children performing 24 motor skills. After categorizing data, two different, unidimensional scales were created, one for boys and one for girls. (SLD)

There are several benefits in engaging children in dramatic plays. Aside from the motor skills involved in performing in a play, children are provided with opportunities in building their physical development. In addition, children can also enhance their language, social, and emotional development when they participate in dramatic plays. In this…

To examine language performance and its subskills, the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities were administered to 30 three- and four-year-old children. The contradictory findings of verbal performance examined by age suggests that component skills contributing to verbal language behavior may vary significantly with age in the preschool years.…

Two experiments examined children's ability to use lengths of lines on a page to show orientations of object surfaces. Found that five- and six-year olds are more reluctant to depart from actual object proportions than seven- and eight-year olds, but children in both age groups can foreshorten line lengths to indicate surfaces receding from a…

Investigated mechanisms underlying age-related differences in information processing for production of motor responses, especially development of feedforward mechanisms. Studied 6-, 8-, 10-, and 22-year olds under two conditions: without advance information on movement to be made, and with advanced information on movement. Found beyond 6 years of…

Problems with large-motor coordination is motor planning and sequencing. This is the ability to carry out actions that require five or six steps. For example, many children can take off their coats, hang them in their cubbies, walk back to a table, sit at the table, and get ready for an activity. A child with coordination problems is likely to…

Children's reported use of single and multiple search strategies during a matching numbers task, along with accompanying verbal (private speech, self-talk) and motoric (finger pointing, place-holding) strategic behaviors were examined with a large, nationally representative cross-sectional sample ("n"=1,979) of children between the ages of 5 and…

Using data from the final two rounds of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a longitudinal study begun in 2001, this First Look provides a snapshot of the demographic characteristics, reading and mathematics knowledge, fine motor skills, school characteristics, and before- and after-school care arrangements of the cohort…

A review of literature suggests that motor competence in the areas of perceptual-motor integration, coordination, and balance affects the academic achievement of young children. Organized physical instruction seems to be beneficial to elementary school children, and the earlier the instruction is begun, the greater the gains. What is uncertain is…