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Children move through a developmental progression in the acquisition of motor skills. There are four phases of motor development: the reflexive movement phase, the rudimentary movement phase, the fundamental movement phase, and the specialized movement phase. The fundamental movement phase occurs between the ages of 2 and 7 as children gain control over their gross motor and fine motor skills.
The formal operational stage is the last of four stages proposed by Jean Piaget to describe the cognitive development of infants, children, and adolescents. The formal operational stage occurs with children from 12 years into adulthood. Emerging abstract thought and hypothetical reasoning mark this stage of cognitive development.
Emotional development refers to the ability to recognize, express, and manage feelings at different stages of life and to have empathy for the feelings of others. Emotional development is largely affected by relationships with parents, siblings, and peers.
Peer pressure occurs when an individual experiences persuasion to participate in the same activities as those in their peer group, or to adopt similar values, beliefs, and goals as the group. For a child, their peer group is usually, but not always, of the same age group.
People
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a social and educational reformer and writer in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He believed that society could best be changed by education and that reform began with assisting the individual students to help themselves.
Friedrich Froebel was truly a pioneer in early childhood education. He established a new type of school for three and four year old children in 1837, which he called a child's garden or kindergarten. Prior to this there had been no educational training for children under the age of seven.
Play
Carl Theodor Sorensen is considered one of the greatest landscape architects of the 20th century. He is best known for creating the first adventure playground along with schoolteacher Hans Dragehjelm in Emdrup, Denmark, in 1940.
A skateboard is a wooden board with four wheels attached to the underside. The skateboard is ridden in a standing position that is propelled forward by pushing off with one foot or by the force of gravity on a slope.
Dr. Henry S. Curtis, a leader in the American play movement, wrote The Play Movement and Its Significance (1917) to provide "a concrete picture of the extent of the development of play in this country, the sources from which the movement has sprung, and the direction in which it is going."
Water is one of the earliest play materials, readily accessible in most areas of the world in the ocean, lakes, rivers, creeks and ponds. Water holds an endless fascination to children who seldom miss opportunities to play in it. Because most people did not have easy access to the natural sources of water, swimming pools were built.
Visual perception is the ability to interpret and understand the information that comes through the eyes as a response to the light that shines in them. It is a dynamic process that identifies, organizes, interprets, and understands what is seen. It integrates sensory and motor information generated by the brain and body to derive meaning from it and direct movement.
