The conjugate lateral eye movement phenomenon was investigated for 52 children aged 2 through 10 using both spatial and verbal-analytic questions. The phenomenon was observed in 50 subjects and appeared well-established by age 3 1/2. Some interesting developmental findings and discrepancies with the results of adult studies are noted. (Author/SJL)

Background: The delayed oculomotor response (DOR) task requires response inhibition followed by movement of gaze towards a known spatial location without a current stimulus. Abnormalities in response inhibition and in the spatial accuracy of the eye movement are found in individuals with schizophrenia and in many of their relatives, supporting the…

Examined effects of spatial precues on rapid execution of aim in 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds, providing kinematic support to the role of precues in aiming tasks performed under temporal constraints. Found that precuing spatial dimensions of movement shortened reaction times as a function of the number of precued parameters. Spatial precues modified…

By bringing together the national German sports game community and an international scientific community in a joint conference, the 6th International Teaching Games for Understanding Conference (TGfU) Meets the 10th German Sports Games Symposium of the German Association of Sport Science (DVS), held July 25-27, 2016, at the German Sport University…

Previous studies with adult human participants revealed that motor activities can influence mental rotation of body parts and abstract shapes. In this study, we investigated the influence of a rotational hand movement on mental rotation performance from a developmental perspective. Children at the age of 5, 8, and 11 years and adults performed a…

Three-year-olds were given a search task with conflicting cues about the target's location. A ball rolled behind a transparent screen and stopped behind one of four opaque doors mounted into the screen. A wall that protruded above one door provided a visible cue of blockage in the ball's path, while the transparent screen allowed visual tracking…

This research had three main goals: to control whether children would show significant improvement in cognitive test scores following piano/keyboard instruction; to compare whether the spatial tasks would show greater improvement than other tasks; and to examine whether the effects of piano/keyboard training on spatial tasks are gender…

Very young infants are sensitive to and follow other people's gaze. By 18 months children, like chimpanzees, apparently represent the spatial relationship between viewer and object viewed: they can follow eye-direction alone, and react appropriately if the other's gaze is blocked by occluding barriers. This paper assesses when children represent…

Investigated whether or not spatial relational concepts could be taught to preschool children. Specifically examined the relative effectiveness of movement-oriented vs. verbal visual-oriented spatial training programs. (Author/SB)

Examined children's recall of the spatial configurations of an environment after the children followed prearranged paths and encountered barriers to movement. When asked to reconstruct the environmental configuration from memory, males estimated distances more accurately than did females. No age differences were noted. (Author/DB)

five spatial tasks were administered to two groups of seven and one-half to nine and one-half year olds: 18 language-disabled and 18 children with normal language development. The language-disabled were less accurate on all tasks which involved anticipation or prediction of mental rotations, movements, or other transformations. (Author/CL)

"Developmental Planning" is the thinking process of using developmental milestones as a general basis for planning and predicting needs for the child within the early years. It considers the time frames associated with normal development across all facets of the child's development. The areas include bone and joint development, movement, sensory…

Utilization of a footprint trail for locating a hidden person may indicate the extension of semiotics to the spatial domain of search. We sought to determine whether young children implemented footprint tracking, and found that at 3-years they successfully tracked footprints on only 3% of trials, at 4-years on 9% of trials, and at 5-years on 41%…

Reports a study designed to investigate the effects of gender upon the acquisition of spatial and environmental skills among primary grade children. Results showed boys performed better on complex tasks and lend support to those who argue that more extensive movements of boys through the environment leads to superior spatial ability. (Author/JDH)

An important component in the early stages of skill development is spatial awareness. This article discusses how good spatial awareness in children results from concepts that are reinforced throughout the school's curriculum. Activities for developing spatial awareness are also provided.