Lecture 28 Flashcards
Four periods in the study of motor
development:
➢Precursor (1787 – 1928)
➢Maturational Period (1928 – 1946)
➢Normative/descriptive period (1946 – 1970)
➢Process-oriented period (1970 - present)
1 - Precursor Period (1787 – 1928)
❖ Single child biographies
❖ Focus on product of development
2- Maturational Period (1928 – 1946)
❖ Studies involved multiple children
❖ Rate and order of development questioned
Normative/descriptive period (1946 – 1970)
❖ Motor development now separated from cognitive development
❖ Significant researchers in this period were Physical Educators.
4 - Process-oriented period (1970 - present)
❖ Most rapid growth in knowledge about development
❖ Study the influence of processes including memory, feedback and
perception on changes to motor behaviour
❖ Shift from information processing approach to dynamical systems
approach
What is Motor Development?
✓ The study of the changes to perceptual motor systems, underlying processes and products of
functional motor behaviour across the lifespan
Growth →
Changes in physical size
Heredity →
Qualities fixed at birth guided by genetic structure
that account for individual traits
Maturation →
Refers to timeline of development of organ
systems, physical structures and motor capabilities.
Affordances →
Opportunities for action the in environment
Self orgamisation properties →
The ability the perceptualmotor system has to self-select patterns of action (attractors)
Adaptation →
Person’s response to environmental stimuli
Readiness →
Combination of maturation and experience
- Perceptual-motor (re)calibration
scaling of action capabilities
to allow distinction between the possible and impossible
opportunities for action in an individual’s surroundings
Which segment grows the most from birth to
maturity?
Legs
