Attempts to dauibc the kinatstbctic d e v d o p n t of young children have ban limited by the use of trdo which ue desigocd for OldalAldrm dinappropnrte ' fortutingthoseofprrJchoolage.Atask r m~~c of I 3to Qyar-old group compared with that of a 5 to dycar-old p u p . The task involved a passive hnd movement to 1 of 16 positions With the hand hidden from the child's view, tlle child identifying the position to which tbeirhnnd had kxn moved by 8 vabal nsponse (naming the aaimal picrund at that loution). The results indicated tbat children as young 1s 3 yean of age have considarbk kinaes tbctic sensitivity. and that by 5 to 6yean theabilitytolltilisekimatb& 'c cues to identify hiad position is very goo6 The older p p pafonned significantly bctta than UIC younger group. A sex diffmncc in kinresthetic acuity at 3 to 4 years of age was also revuled, with boys of this age performing more accurately than girls. This difference was not evident in children of 5 to 6 yean of age. designed spodfidy to ttStkiIuuh& 'c acuity in pruchool aged children was developed and the pator-Kinauthjia is the sense of movement and position. This sense arises from a number of kinaesthetic receptors which include muscle spindks, tendon organs. joint receptors, md skin lccep tors, dl of which contribute to the global &on of k i n a a hsis (Mccloskey, 1978). Kinacsthcsl 'a has been &bed a role in the learning and performance of motor tasks but, as pointed out by Laszlo md B h w (1983). the contribution of this modality has been neglected in comparison to the visual, auditory and tactik &tics.Consequently, little is known of the maturat i d changes in kinaestbesis.An attempt to cOmct this situation was made by Laszlo and BairJtow (1980BairJtow ( , 1983BairJtow ( . 1985 using their Kinautheb 'c Sensitivity. evidence presented by Bairstow and Laszlo (1981) that angle Address for conespondence: Dr David Livesey, aparbnmt of Psyddogy, The W s i t y of S-y. NSW 2006, Aust~alia. krstrdian kumd of psychokgy V d 47, No. 3.1995 pp. 160-163 Imagery, IS. 143-150. Miller. S. (1971). Visual and haptic cue utiliuton by pruchool children: The recognition of visual and haptic stimuli presented scpnratcly and togetbcr. Journal OfErpCrimenrai ChildPsychology, 12.88-94. Milla. S. (1972). Thc development of visual aad -tic judgements of Newcombe, N. (1982). Sex-rrlwd diffcrcnca in spatial ability: Problems and gap in cumnt appropches. In M. Potegal (Ed.), Spatial abilities: Developmental a d physiological fo&tionr. New Yo&. Academic Rcu. Smothergill. D.W. (1973). Accumcy and variabiility in tbc localisation of spatial tagas Y thra age levelr. Developmental Psychfogy, 8,6246. Von Hofstcn, C.. & Rosblad, B. (1988). The intcgrPtion of sensory informtion in the development of prccisc manual pointing. Neuropsyhologia 26,805-821. Research 2. 131-144. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 33.61 1-678. Ethic and sex diffemce~. British JOUrnalof P~h o l o g y , 70,351-365. dim=. Britirh J o W of Prychol~gy, 63,271-282.