Perceptual-Motor Activities for Children: An Evidence-Based Guide to Building Physical and Cognitive Skills provides a proven blueprint for improving perceptual-motor skills—the skills that require young learners to use their brains and their bodies together to accomplish tasks. When kids improve these skills, they not only improve their coordination and increase their body awareness but they also enhance their intellectual skills and gain a more positive self-image.
This easy-to-use guide outlines a 32-week program of sequential station activities that will help pre-K and elementary school-aged children in various stages of development, particularly those who are lagging behind in their perceptual-motor skills. Developed and piloted by two educators who have refined the program since 2004, this program provides all you need to create a perceptual-motor learning laboratory for your students.
Chapter 1. Building a Perceptual-Motor Learning Laboratory
Chapter 2. Bilateral Activities
Chapter 3. Unilateral Activities
Chapter 4. Cross-Lateral Activities
Chapter 5. Combination Activities
Jill A. Johnstone and Molly Ramon are elementary physical education teachers in San Antonio, Texas. Between the two of them, they have nearly 50 years of experience teaching physical education as well as 7 years of research, development, and implementation of perceptual-motor learning laboratories in public school settings. They have made presentations and taught workshops on the perceptual-motor activities program at the district, state, and national levels.
Their program has been tested in public schools and reviewed by professors at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Jill and Molly have trained teachers and monitored labs at more than 45 schools, assisting with the implementation of the program. They are members of the Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Jill enjoys reading, hiking, and kayaking; Molly enjoys coaching, reading, and spending time with her family.