Motor development

1. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY GROUP 5 MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

2. INTRODUCTION Childs born with few motor skills By the age of 1 year they start to walk . Till this time the develop other motor skills . The acquisition of motor skill is really variable

3. PRINCIPLES Differenciation : firstly motor skills are global reactions. With time and practice this skills become more specific . Cephalocaudal : develop from head to tail. Proximodistal : develop from the inside to outside.

4. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

5. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT Bertenthal and Clifton (1998) note that control over one’s motor behaviour ranks among the infant’s greatest achievements. Psychologists who study the acquisition of motor skills find it useful to distinguish between gross motor development, that is, motor skills which help children to get around in their environment such as crawling and walking, and fine motor development, which refers to smaller movement sequences like reaching and grasping.

6. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT The development of motor skil has implications beyond simply learning how to perform new actions: motor skills can have profound effects on development.

7. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT For example; children who can move about the environment develop an understanding of locations such as ‘here’ and ‘there’.

8. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT Because infant memory is initially highly dependent on context – that is, similarity between the situation where information is encoded and where it is recalled – infants who have experience moving about the environment and who learn to spatially encode information become less dependent on context for successfull recall.

9. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT These examples show that motor development has implications beyond the immediately apparent benefits of crawling or walking

10. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT Piaget (1952) argued that the development of reaching and grasping was a key aspect of cognitive development because it forms an important link between biological adaptation and intellectual adaptation.

11. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT Reaching and grasping are voluntary actions under the infant’s control, and as such, they open up exciting new possibilities in the infant’s ability to explore their environment. The infant who reaches for and grasps an object so as to explore it pushes his development forwards as he engages in processes such as adapting his grip to the size and shape of the object.

12. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOMPENT Piaget argued that these early processes of assimilation and accommodation to objects drive cognitive development in the sensory motor period.

13. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT The infant's reaching does not depend simply on the guidance of the hand and arm by the visual system but is controlled by proprioception, the sensation of movement and location based on simulation arising from bodily sources such as muscle contractions. By about 9 months of age, infants can adjust their reaching to take into account moving object. The ulnar grasp is a primitive form of grasping in which the infant’s fingers close against their palm. The fingers seem to act as a whole, requiring the use of the palm in order to hold an object.

14. When infants can sit upright on their own, infants acquire the ability transfer objects from hand to hand. By around the end of the first year, infants gave graduate to using the pincer grasp wherein they use their index finger and their thumb in a opposable manner, resulting in a more coordinated and finely tuned grip. For example to take a knob on a stereo system.

15. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR SKILL BEYOND INFANCY Gallahue suggests that, beyond infancy, three fundamental sets of motor skills emerge in the child's repertoire. These are locomotor movements, which include walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping and climbing; manipulative movements including throwing, catching and kicking; and stability movements including bending, stretching, rolling, balancing and walking on one’s hands.  

16. MATURATION VS. EXPERIENCE

17. MATURATION (GENETICS) Gesell & Thompson (1929) and McGraw (1935)  believe that motor behaviours emerged according to a preprogrammed genetic timetable. Gesell desmostrated it doing an experiment with twins, and the conclusion was that maturation and not experience is the prime factor in determining when children acquire skills.

18. EXPERIENCE (ENVIRONMENT) J.B.Watson,Thelen (1995), Zelazo & Kolb (1972), and Hopkins & Westra (1988)  think that transactions with the environment must play a crucial role in the timing of motor skill acquisition. The acquisition of motor skills also varies across cultures. For instance, Hopkins and Westra found that mothers in the West Indies have babies which walk considerably earlier than the average North American infant. This example shows, environments can have important effects on when skills are acquired. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=90zFKuITTFo

19. QUESTIONS How many fundamental sets of motor skill are there? a) Two b) Three c) Four d) Five

20. How Gesell demonstrated that maduration is the prime factor in determining when children acquire skills? a ) Experimenting with pregnant women. b ) Experimenting with babies. c ) Experimenting with West Indian mothers. d ) Experimenting with twins.

21. What of this parts of the body developes before ? a) The foot b) The brain c) The arms d) The legs