Motor Development Flashcards
What are the major milestones of Infant Motor Development
Birth to 5 months
- stepping reflex
- mini push-ups during tummy time
- bounce when held upright
6 to 10 months
- sit up
- crawl up
- stand with support
- cruise
9 to 15 months
- pull to a stand
- stand unsupported
- take first steps
16 to 18 months
- dance
- climb stairs with help
- walk backward
2 years
- run
- kick a ball
- jump from low step
Motor Development:
- what’s it previously believed to be an element of?
- what approach do most researchers now take?
- Previously believed to be an element of neurological maturity
- Most researchers now take a dynamic systems approach
Dynamic Systems Theory emphasises multiple causes, outline these
– increases in strength and weight
– neural mechanisms
– posture control
– balance
– perceptual skills
– motivation
Dynamic Systems Theory:
What are the meanings of dynamic and system?
Dynamic: change over time
System: many elements interacting
What does the Dynamic Systems Theory explain?
DST explains how behaviour changes over time
Milestones and Dynamic Systems Theory:
- is it when or how development occurs?
- what do most children arrive at?
- how do children arrive at milestones?
- what does this process depend on?
- Not “when” but “how” development occurs
- Most children arrive at milestones
(”attractors”) e.g.,crawling, standing, and walking, although by way of different routes. - same idea of magnets - Children may arrive at milestones via
different routes - The process depends more upon
experimentation, curiosity, and learning than
was previously thought
Motor Development is an Ongoing Process
Study looking at when they can stand alone without holding anything for 3 seconds.
- Motor skills do not suddenly “turn on”
- How often you measure also leads to different data. In both cases, if you measure every day, you will think they will stand independently at different times to one another.
Motor skills: fine vs gross
Fine (smaller muscles):
* Grasping (hand)
* Object manipulation
* Drawing
Gross (large muscles):
* Sitting
* Reaching (arm)
* Crawling
* Walking
* Running
Stepping Reflex
- Coordinated behaviour resembling walking
- Alternating leg movements
- “Disappears” around 2 months of age
Why does the stepping reflex disappear?
- Rapid weight gain causes legs to get
heavier faster than they get stronger - DST Demonstration: Make babies
behave like other babies: - Older babies in water
- Younger babies with ankle weights
Stepping reflex:
How do we know it’s not neurological maturity?
We also know it’s not neurological maturity because they can do the same behaviour when laying down (distributed gravitational pull).
Sitting independently:
- what does sitting independently aid?
- What does sitting independently have a cascading effect on?
- what does sitting independently create new opportunities for?
- new opportunities for ______ ?
- Sitting independently aids reaching
- Sitting independently has a cascading effect on infant perception
- Sitting creates new opportunities for exploring
- New opportunities for exploring shape visual
perception
Figure/Ground Assignment
- what does it allow us to identify?
- helps us to understand…
- what do adults use to determine figure/ ground
- why do infants need figure/ ground segregation?
- Figure/ground assignment allows us to identify objects (figures) from the background.
- It helps us understand depth and plan reaching.
- Adults use symmetry, convexity (curvature), lower region to determine figure/ground.
- Infants need figure/ground segregation to guide attention, eye movements and learning.
What were the two categories of the Figure/ Ground Assignment
Consistent and inconsistent
Figure/Ground Assignment: What were the two cues to figure?
Motion and symmetry