Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

A study of environmental stimulation: An orphanage preschool project.Motor achievements.

A study of environmental stimulation: An orphanage preschool project.: Motor achievements. The study presented in this book examines the effects of preschool education on the development of children living in an orphanage. This chapter compares the motor achievements of children who attended preschool and those who did not. Preschool and control children were tested on the McCaskill series of motor achievements in June 1936, after the preschool had been in session twenty months, and were retested in March 1937. The achievements tested were methods of ascending and descending short and long nights of steps; ascending and descending a ladder with rungs six inches apart and a ladder with rungs twelve inches apart; jumping from boxes 8, 12, 18, and 28 inches in height; hopping on one foot, hopping on both feet, skipping, walking on a straight path, and walking on a circular path. The preschool children (thirty-eight cases) made a motor achievements score 5.3 points superior to the control group (forty cases). There was unevenness of development in the various motor accomplishments measured in this study. The rate of development of a skill appeared to be related to opportunities for its practice. The skills in which the preschool children excelled the control children were those in which they had an obvious advantage in opportunity. The most significant differences occurred on methods of ascending and descending ladders, to which the preschool children had access but the control children did not. The second most pronounced difference occurred on methods of ascending and descending steps. The preschool children had considerably more opportunity to practice this performance than the control children. In methods of jumping off boxes, and in hopping, skipping, and balanced walking the preschool children were not superior to the control children. Among the preschool equipment were packing boxes and a set of boxes of different heights. Control children did not have boxes, but on the sunporch there was a window seat from which they jumped. Occasionally also they jumped from the table or crawled through the windows leading from the sunporch to the cottage room. Opportunities for hopping and skipping were equivalent in the two groups so far as is known. A small amount of training was given as a part of the preschool program, but the control children may also have received some instruction from older children. The preschool children progressed faster than the control children. Judged by the performance of Iowa City children they were approaching normal development and improving in all types of performances, while the control children who remained in the orphanage for a long stretch of time were showing marked retardation and failure to progress sufficiently to maintain their initial age-motor age ratio. The differences in progress of the two groups appeared to be due to the better environment and opportunities offered by the preschool. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A study of environmental stimulation: An orphanage preschool project.Motor achievements.

Download PDF
21 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/american-psychological-association/a-study-of-environmental-stimulation-an-orphanage-preschool-project-VbHFYUzXQf

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of Iowa
Copyright
Copyright © 1938 American Psychological Association
Pages
161 –182
DOI
10.1037/13507-010
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

The study presented in this book examines the effects of preschool education on the development of children living in an orphanage. This chapter compares the motor achievements of children who attended preschool and those who did not. Preschool and control children were tested on the McCaskill series of motor achievements in June 1936, after the preschool had been in session twenty months, and were retested in March 1937. The achievements tested were methods of ascending and descending short and long nights of steps; ascending and descending a ladder with rungs six inches apart and a ladder with rungs twelve inches apart; jumping from boxes 8, 12, 18, and 28 inches in height; hopping on one foot, hopping on both feet, skipping, walking on a straight path, and walking on a circular path. The preschool children (thirty-eight cases) made a motor achievements score 5.3 points superior to the control group (forty cases). There was unevenness of development in the various motor accomplishments measured in this study. The rate of development of a skill appeared to be related to opportunities for its practice. The skills in which the preschool children excelled the control children were those in which they had an obvious advantage in opportunity. The most significant differences occurred on methods of ascending and descending ladders, to which the preschool children had access but the control children did not. The second most pronounced difference occurred on methods of ascending and descending steps. The preschool children had considerably more opportunity to practice this performance than the control children. In methods of jumping off boxes, and in hopping, skipping, and balanced walking the preschool children were not superior to the control children. Among the preschool equipment were packing boxes and a set of boxes of different heights. Control children did not have boxes, but on the sunporch there was a window seat from which they jumped. Occasionally also they jumped from the table or crawled through the windows leading from the sunporch to the cottage room. Opportunities for hopping and skipping were equivalent in the two groups so far as is known. A small amount of training was given as a part of the preschool program, but the control children may also have received some instruction from older children. The preschool children progressed faster than the control children. Judged by the performance of Iowa City children they were approaching normal development and improving in all types of performances, while the control children who remained in the orphanage for a long stretch of time were showing marked retardation and failure to progress sufficiently to maintain their initial age-motor age ratio. The differences in progress of the two groups appeared to be due to the better environment and opportunities offered by the preschool. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Published: Dec 12, 2011

Keywords: children; preschool education; motor achievements; development; environment; orphanage

There are no references for this article.