The shaping of human motor development is demonstrated by the orderly sequence of events which occur throughout the individual's development process. Muscular strength and proficiency in gross motor skills improve with advancing chronological age throughout childhood and adolescence, with sex differences in performance tending to favor males. (JN)

The author cites these benefits of music to the visually handicapped student: physiological music activities enhance psychomotor coordination and promote relaxation and the ability to cope with frustration; participation in music events encourages interaction with sighted peers. Organizations providing music instructional materials for the…

Children have a need and a right to active, movement-oriented play. With the aid of an imaginative parent, such play can assist in the maturation of a child's cognitive ability and serve as a means of developing basic motor skills. (LH)

Discusses the prerequisite skills for handwriting and how one can help children acquire them. (Author/MP)

The McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) was administered to kindergarten-aged chilren to obtain General Cognitive Indices (CGI). A short form of the MSCA was developed to select six subtests that best predicted the CGI. (Author/BEF)

Analyzes preschoolers' scores on the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI), the Slosson Intelligence Test (SIT), and the ABC Inventory (ABCI). Separate ANOVAs reveal no race effect on the VMI. Race differences favoring Whites are found for SIT and ABCI. There were no effects for sex on any measure. (Author)

Investigated with 12 preschool children were whether IQ scores are a predictive indicator of potential learning disability and whether nonprofessional volunteers can remediate possible motor, perceptual, or verbal deficiencies with a concomitant increase in IQ score. (DB)

The nature of psychomotor skills and their relationship to academic achievement and positive self concept are discussed. Illustrations of program implementation and instructor preparation in several schools are presented. (RW)

The literature on the effects of congenital blindness on infants' development of motor functions and concepts of object permanence is reviewed. The article questions the idea that infants must first develop an object concept before sound clues alone will elicit reaching. Possible interventions to redress the effects of congenital blindness on…

This article explains the benefits of portfolio usage for students with autism spectrum disorder and details what to include and how to organize the portfolio. Suggested portfolio divisions include artifacts addressing socialization, communication, behavior, academic, functional skills, and fine and gross motor development. Sharing student…

A method is presented for examining change in motor patterns used to produce linguistic contrasts. In this case study, the method is applied to a child who experienced hearing loss at age 3 and received a multi-channel cochlear implant at 7. Post-implant, acoustic durations showed a maturational change. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Five children with developmental apraxia of speech (DAS), 5 controls (ages 5-6), and 6 adults produced utterances in a normal condition and in a bite-block condition in which the mandible was in a fixed position. In children with DAS, the bite-block had large effects on coarticulatory patterns and vowel quality. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Compared trisomy-21 infants whose parents were trained in vicarious techniques with those whose parents were trained by written instruction. Significant differences in gross motor and language development favored vicariously trained parents. (Author/BB)

Reports on a longitudinal study of gross-motor development in 10 congenitally blind children during their first 3 years. Compared to developmental norms for sighted children, five full-term blind children showed slight delays in postural development but greater delays in locomotor development. Five preterm blind children showed major delays in all…