Perceptual motor skills refer to a child's developing ability to interact with his environment by combining the use of the senses and motor skills. This is viewed as a combined process where visual, auditory, and tactile sensory abilities are combined with emerging motor skills to develop perceptual motor skills.
G. Stanley Hall was the leader in establishing psychology as a science and a profession in America in the late 19th century. He was also known as the "father of adolescence." Hall's resulting focus on the child study movement and educational reforms led him to identify play as the means "for making children and adolescents moral and strong."
The book Handcrafted Playgrounds - Designs You Can Build Yourself was written by M. Paul Friedberg. The book is a sketchbook of designs based on the premises that anyone can build a playground and that the actual process of the building can be as important as the finished product.
A favorite winter pastime of children through the years has been ice skating. Once enjoyed primarily as a fun recreational activity on a frozen lake or river, ice skating has also developed into competitive events, such as speed skating, figure skating, and ice hockey.
Caroline Pratt, an American innovative educator who was part of the progressive movement in the early 1900s, is credited for developing wooden blocks, called unit blocks. They were similar to the blocks used by Friedrich Froebel in his kindergartens.
Attunement play has been described as the base state of play. When an infant around three or four months of age and a caregiver make eye contact with each other resulting in an emotional connection, they are said to be "attuned" with one another in a playful way with each experiencing a spontaneous surge of emotion.
With more than 50 years experience in research and teaching, Joe L. Frost, wrote A History of Children's Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement. He has authored numerous books and articles on the subject of play, playgrounds, safety, children's poverty, and play and child development.
Calvert Vaux was an architect and park planner, who is most known for his work in the creation of Central Park in New York City and Prospect Park in Brooklyn in the 1800s. His chosen title, “landscape architect,” evolved from his strong emphasis on the part nature played in his designs. In his own words, he felt “Nature first and 2d and 3d – Architecture after a while” when creating a park setting.
The rudimentary movement phase ranges from birth to about age 2. It includes the basic motor skills acquired in infancy: reaching, grasping, and releasing objects as well as sitting, standing, and walking.
Equilibrium is the state of balance acquired when contending forces are equal. The "sense of equilibrium" involves having a sense of security when standing, walking, or performing any movement. A number of factors are involved in equilibrium of the body, including visual cues, tactile kinesthetic sensations, and vestibular (inner ear) stimulation.
