Perceptual-Motor Development and Motor Skill Intervention ©Gallahue, D.L., Ozmun, J.C., Goodway, J.D. (2012). Understanding Motor Development. Boston: McGraw-Hill. McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2012 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

14-2 All Voluntary Movement Involves an Element of Perception; As Such, Childhood Motor Development Is Closely Associated With Perceptual-motor Functioning

14-3  Visual-motor adjustment -Movement as a “necessary” condition? (motion hypothesis) -Movement as a “sufficient” condition? (perception may have an impact on movement skill learning)

14-4  Visual Acuity - Static (pick out detail in stationary objects, Snellen chart: 20/20) - Dynamic (pick out detail inmoving objects) -Developmental aspects (rapid improvement 5-7, plateau 7-8, mature 10-12)

14-5  Figure-ground Perception -Figure (object of regard) -Ground (background) -Developmental aspects (slow improvement 3-4, rapid improvement 4-6, mature 8-12)

14-6  Depth Perception - Monocular depth cues (size, texture, shading etc.) - Binocular depth cues (retinal disparity gives depth) -Developmental aspects (frequent errors 3-4, few errors 5-6, rapid improvement 7-11, mature 12)

14-7  Visual-motor Coordination -Object tracking & interception ( coincidence-anticipation ) -Developmental aspects (rapid improvement 3-7, slow improvement, 7-9, mature 11-12)

14-8  Modify equipment (size, weight, color, texture)  Modify rules (for perceptual clarity & consistency)  Modify expectations (for level of development)

14-9  Sensory input (visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic sensory receptors)  Sensory integration (organizing incoming data with stored data)  Motor interpretation (making internal motor decisions based on both present & past data)  Movement activation (executing the movement)  Feedback (KR & KP)

14-10  Body awareness (improves body schema, body image) -Knowledge of the body parts -Knowledge of what they can do -Knowledge of how to make them do it  Spatial awareness (moving from egocentric space to external space) -Subjective localization -Objective localization

14-11  Directional Awareness (gives dimension to objects in space) -laterality (internal) -directionality (external)  Temporal Awareness (an internal time structure) -synchrony -rhythm -sequence

14-12  Young children from disadvantaged environments demonstrate developmental delays (< 25 th percentile compared to peers) in FMS  Although delayed, boys had better manipulative skills than girls  Both boys and girls had similar locomotor skills  Delays in FMS are consistent across ethnic groups and geographic locations and give rise to concern about future physical activity patterns, obesity & health  Young children who are disadvantaged are in need of early motor skill intervention

14-13  Poverty – economically impoverished environment  Lack of safe places to play outside  Limited role models  Limited access to sport/motor skill programs  Limited feedback on performance of motor skills  Biological factors such as low birth weight, premature birth, small for gestational age (SGA)

14-14  Provide instruction to young children to help remediate their developmental delays.  Motor skill interventions have been taught by:  Motor development experts  Parents as teachers of their children with an expert facilitator directing parents  Physical education teachers  In all cases, providing a motor skill intervention resulted in significant improvements in FMS  In many studies, these programs brought children who were delayed into the range of typical (or even advanced) motor development

14-15  Teacher centered approaches  Direct instruction provided by teacher  Teacher sets the tasks and controls a child’s progress through the skill tasks  Feedback and cue words provided during instruction  Child centered approaches  Teacher as a facilitator  Teacher sets the tasks, but the child determines the tasks in which to participate and controls progress through the skill tasks  Feedback and cue words provided during instruction  Uses “TARGET“ structures to create lesson plans

14-16  Adding a motor skill program to a child’s regular preschool program resulted in significant pretest- to-posttest improvements in FMS (both locomotor & manipulative skills)  Children who only got their regular preschool program with play-based physical activities did not improve their FMS from pretest-to-posttest  Programs lasting 8-12 weeks and encompassing skill instruction for mins of instruction resulted in the necessary instructional time to improve motor skills

14-17  Assess children’s motor skill development  Carefully plan motor activities based on the current motor development of the children  Select a wide variety of motivating tasks that will challenge & meet the needs of all levels of children  Provide maximum opportunities to practice (own equipment, lots of practice trials, small groups)  Provide accurate demonstration of skills  Give individualized feedback & cue words to promote desirable performance  Install reward structures & other motivational techniques such as creative, thematic lessons  Allow child choice & encourage independence of learning

14-18 Motor skill interventions using direct instruction, mastery motivational climate and parents as teachers brings about significant changes in the FMS of young children who are disadvantaged. Children receiving the regular early childhood curriculum did not improve their motor skills.