Hands On, Minds On: How Executive Function, Motor, and Spatial Skills Foster School Readiness

A growing body of research indicates that three foundational cognitive skills―executive function, motor skills, and spatial skills―form the basis for children to make a strong academic, behavioral, and social transition to formal school. Given inequitable early learning environments or “opportunity gaps” in the United States, these skills are also a source of substantial achievement and behavioral gaps.

Hands On, Minds On describes the importance of children’s foundational cognitive skills for academic achievement in literacy and mathematics, as well as their connections with other areas of school readiness, including physical health, social and emotional development, and approaches to learning. The author emphasizes how social relationships and interactions, both in and outside the classroom, encourage or constrain young children’s development in these skills. The book concludes with a summary of the growing evidence in favor of guided object play, which teachers can introduce to children to exercise and strengthen foundational cognitive skills.

Book Features:

• Applies prominent theories from cognitive psychology to explain how children learn in the early childhood classroom.
• Includes text comprehension review questions, short exercises, and realistic examples of preschool classroom scenarios.
• Examines different types of play and their association with learning gains, especially for children of lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Proposes shifts in early childhood practice toward guided object play to give all students an opportunity for early success in school.

Claire E. Cameron is associate professor in the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo. She directs the Early Childhood and Childhood programs for teachers seeking certification to teach in New York State, and for researchers seeking a doctorate with a preschool or elementary focus. She is an expert in the development and assessment of foundational cognitive skills in early childhood and author of the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) behavioral assessment and the Motor Skills Rating Scale (MSRS) teacher-report questionnaire. Cameron earned her PhD in 2007 from the University of Michigan’s Combined Program in Education and Psychology in Ann Arbor. She was an Institute for Education Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow from 2007 to 2009 at the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching & Learning (CASTL), where she stayed on as research scientist until moving to Buffalo in 2015. She is a passionate proponent of translating research for public audiences and serves on the advisory board for the University of Connecticut’s PK–3 Leadership Program. Learn more about Cameron’s work at claireelizabethcameron.com.