School-based occupational and physical therapists frequently recommend and educate PreK teachers on the benefits of motor skill activities throughout the day. An important question to answer is how often should preK students have movement groups? A systemic research review was conducted on exploring the relationship between fundamental motor skill interventions and physical activity levels in […]
Motor Skill Interventions versus Play-Based Lessons for Preschoolers Preschools provide many opportunities for play and motor skill development. Recent research attempted to answer the question regarding the outcomes of motor skill interventions versus play-based lessons for preschoolers. The study participants included 149 Hispanic pre-K children from low socioeconomic status. All of the children were evaluated […]
Motor Overflow in Preschool Children When observing preschoolers complete complex motor tasks, you may observe an increase in motor activation displayed as extraneous movements in body parts not actively involved in the current task. These extraneous movements are sometimes called motor overflow, mirror movements or associated movements. Perceptual and Motor Skills published research examining what […]
Early Childhood Education Journal published research on 68 preschool children (34 low socioeconomic (SES) background and 34 typically developing) to compare the motor skill performance using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 (PDMS-2). Standard scores from each subtest (i.e., stationary, locomotion, object manipulation, grasping, and visual-motor integration) and three quotient scores were calculated for all the […]
McMaster University published a resource on physical activity for preschoolers. A recent study indicated that preschool children should take at least 6000 steps every day participating in at least 180 minutes of physical activity per day of any intensity. By age 5, children should participate in 60 minutes of energetic play (ie biking, running, playing […]
Interesting research in Pediatrics on the different sedentary behaviors of boys versus girls. Three hundred thirty one preschool children wore accelerometers over a period of 2 weeks. The results indicated the following: girls were more sedentary than boys for boys sedentary behavior was correlated with the amount of weekly tv/video games and physical activity equipment […]
BMC Pediatrics published research that analyzed aerobic fitness, motor skills, dynamic balance, working memory and attention in 254 ethnically diverse preschoolers (mean age 5.2 years). Baseline data was collected along with data 9 months later. The results indicated the following: a cross sectional analysis indicated that aerobic fitness level was associated with better attention cross […]
The Gesell Institute for Human Development has performed an 18 month long study on how childhood development in 2010 relates to Gesell’s observations published in 1925, 1940 and after his death by his colleagues in 1964 and 1979. Interestingly, not much has changed through all the years. Some experts are concluding that even though the […]
Play for young children is crucial to healthy development. Pediatric therapists who work in early childhood education know the importance of play and how to use it to reach IEP goals that are set for specific children. When a child is evaluated for therapy services, the therapist observes the child in the classroom setting. Therapists […]