Motor Training Essays - Educational Psychology, Learning Disability

Motor Training Motor training to develop readiness, motivation and means of expression, as a basis for learning programs Motor activity is fast becoming a valuable aid in the teaching of academic subjects to elementary school children. The realization of the place motor activity has in the classroom does not imply that physical activity is a prerequisite to learning but rather a method through which a child can learn more easily and understand more fully. Training in physical coordination is not only helpful in providing a child with a mode for expressing what has been learned, but it has become a factor in instilling in the child a willingness and readiness to learn and has also introduced itself as a base for a learning program. One writer, Maritain (1966), has described the function of education as primarily a source of liberation. In the case of the child whose learning problems stem from a learning disability, this liberation would consist of allowing the child to move about, to explore, and to receive impressions, to respond and to express. This call for movement as a basis of learning is further substantiated by Getman's theory that the skill of motor control and coordination is a necessary prerequisite to every intellectual activity. Cratty (1970) further states that movement is learning; learning requires movement. Some theorists seem to attribute all intellectual achievement to motor development rather than viewing motor activity as an aid to learning. One theory implies that certain motor activities when properly applied would prepare children in the intellectual areas of spelling, reading, and similar intellectual tasks during the child's first year in school. Cratty 1970). This theory may hold true if the motor activities are somehow related to the intellectual processes involved. It is important to remember that normal children have other