Examined in a longitudinal study of children were correspondences and correlations between early language development on the one hand, and the manipulation of objects and play development on the other. There were developmental correspondences between the onset of five language landmarks (the emergence of first word, referential word, demonstrative…

GRADES OR AGES: Grades K-6. SUBJECT MATTER: Physical Education--includes sections on a) exploring movement, b) locomotor and nonlocomotor skills, c) perceptual-motor skills, d) object manipulation, e) ball handling, f) rhythms, g) gymnastics, and h) physical fitness. ORGANIZATION AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: The first section presents a program…

Describes an activity to create squares by placing different numbers of tangram pieces together. Discusses why the combination of six tangram pieces can not create a square. Presents diagrams of the tangram pieces and the squares made. (YP)

Two experiments show that action alters the shape categories formed by 2-year-olds. Experiment 1 shows that moving an object horizontally (or vertically) defines the horizontal (or vertical) axis as the main axis of elongation and systematically changes the range of shapes seen as similar. Experiment 2 shows that moving an object symmetrically (or…

This ERIC digest examines recent research about the use of manipulatives to teach mathematics. "Manipulatives" refers to objects that can be touched and moved by students to introduce or reinforce a mathematical concept. The digest also speculates on some of the challenges affecting future use of manipulatives. Since the 19th century,…

A total of 53 rural, impoverished children (37 aged 3-5, from a day care center and 16 5-year-olds from a Head Start Center) were investigated for influences of age and sex on early social behavior. Individuals were observed in 15-minute play sessions and assessed with a standard observational category system. (CS)

Age-related characteristics of children's short-term retention of kinesthetic movement information were examined in this study. Three age levels (6-, 8-, and 10-year old children) were tested for recall of preselected location movements on a linear slide apparatus. Immediate and delayed recall were used in 16 trials. The results indicate that…

A seriation task (assembling a set of nesting cups) was used in this study to examine developmental changes in young children's ability to restructure a situation. Forty young children, eight each at 18, 24, 30, 36, and 40 months of age, participated in the study. Each child was presented with five nesting cups and was told he or she could play…

A dissertation proposal involved a study to observe spontaneous behavior of children in interaction with materials in order to gain understanding of the factors that influence classificatory and imaginative behavior in free play. Children at two levels of ability in terms of classification skills were observed in interaction with materials at two…

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether playing a specific ball sport, such as tennis, could maintain the coincidence-timing (CT) performance of older adults at a similar level to that of younger ones. To address this question, tennis players and nonplayers of three different age ranges (ages 20-30, 60-70, and 70-80 years)…

The "visual world paradigm" typically involves presenting participants with a visual scene and recording eye movements as they either hear an instruction to manipulate objects in the scene or as they listen to a description of what may happen to those objects. In this study, participants heard each target sentence only after the corresponding…

Increasing attention is being paid today to the place of science in general education at the preprimary, primary, and secondary levels. Educational authorities and specialists in many countries throughout the world agree about the important role that science should and can play in the context of education, but specific aims and objectives must be…

The purpose of this study was to explore how children use location and distance cues to reproduce movements as compared with adults. Subjects were three groups of children, aged 6, 8, and 10, and one group of adults. A linear slide was used by the blindfolded subjects to indicate one of two experimenter-defined stops. Distance and location were…

Investigated was the readiness of fifth, seventh, and eighth graders trained to empirically gather data by manipulating objects and materials with their hands, and to transfer this skill to a problem situation outside the classroom. After one semester's training in the science process under investigation, the increase in the use of the strategy of…