Autonomy and a sense of control enh.ances motor learning 

Toddlers, like older children and adults put more effort into doing an activity when they have a sense of control

Motor learning at all ages and levels of expertise is enhanced when the learner has a sense that they have some control of the situation when practicing a task. 

Interestingly learning is enhanced even when the learner is given a choice between some aspect of the task, even when this does not have a real bearing on the task. For instance, a choice between different colored but otherwise identical balls in a putting task improves the accuracy of the putting trials. 

Providing infants with choices between,or within, tasks to be practiced also increases an infant's willingness to engage with an activity.  Read more

In this video I show how I adapt a simple posting pegs into a bottle activity to allow a toddler to make choices about the pegs and the bottles. 

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Motivation, intrinsic motivation and exploratory behavior