Abstract
M.Ed. (Education)
The teaching of motor skills is to a large extent neglected in early
childhood. This conclusion has been drawn from practical experience and
observation obtained from teaching at a preparatory school.
The research undertaken in this study has focussed on the design of a
motor guiding programme in which individual motor skills can effectively
be taught. Naturally the first priority has been to establish which motor
skills a child must obtain at each developmental stage. Therefore this
study analysed different characteristics of the growing child in the three
developmental stages - the neonate, the infant and the preschool child.
the next step has been to establish which criteria constitute the' basis for
the motor guiding programme. The solution to this problem has been obtained
from observing small children, ages three to six years as well as
from scrutinizing the vast amount of empirical research on motor skills
that appear in representative literature.
The following criteria which emanated from the research programme, constitute
the basis for the proposed motor guiding programme: individual
uniqueness, the original situation, estimation of time, content, school
readiness, sosializing, norm establishment, human dignitiy, positive
selfconcept, realistic aims, aspiration level, stimulation, affective
stability, safety and evaluation.
The next stage of research was the design of appropriate teaching
principles applicable to motor skills by the analysis of the cognitive,
affective and motor aspects of the teaching of motor skills for preschool
children. These principles appear to be: aims and goals, self actualization,
sosialization, motivation, evaluation, structuring and contextualization.
Having analysed these principles and criteria, a motor guiding programme
has been developed.