Background/Purpose: This study examined 4-5 year-old children's perceptual judgment about the relationship between body, spaces, and equipment in balancing performances. The hypotheses of this study were; (1) children may perceive the imposed constraints on balancing tasks and so choose a balancing base accordingly; (2) learning the concepts of quantification (e.g., small, big, narrow, wide) with movement tasks may positively affect the strategic perceptual judgment to succeed in balance tasks.
Method: The perceptual judgments of nine home-schooled children were tested with two balancing tasks and one retention test. Different balancing supports were provided and chosen by the participating children. A behavior analytic simultaneous treatment design was used to evaluate the data. (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007)
Analysis/Results: The children generally preferred balancing on the larger bases and placing their feet wide for stability, especially when having to attend to an additional task while balancing, such as hitting balloons in the air. However, larger bases or wider support did not always translate into better balancing performance while attending to the additional task. Regardless of the choices in size and width of the base, the quality of balancing performances varied across participants.
Conclusions: Children may be able to perceive the physical properties of the base of support for balance tasks and choose the one that is compatible with a particular balancing goal. The preference in choosing the bases appeared universal throughout the study and in the retention test.