Chapter 4 THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING MOTOR DEVELOPMENT Jill Whitall Made by Wang Yan

§4.1 Historical Overview §4.2 Precursor Period §4.3 Maturational Period §4.4 Normative/Descriptive §4.5 Information-Processing §4.6 Dynamic Systems §4.7 Developmental Neuroscience §4.8 Summary

Motor Development Consists of two Aspects  One aspect is the observed changes in motor behavior itself.  The second aspect,and to many the more important, is the process and cause of those changes in motor skill.

§4.1 Historical Overview  Four time periods  Precursor ( )  Maturational ( )  Normative/Descriptive ( )  Process-oriented ( )

 Six time periods  Precursor ( )  Maturational ( )  Normative/Descriptive (  Information-Processing ( )  Dynamic Systems (1982- about 2000)  Developmental Neuroscience (about present).

§4.2 Precursor Period ( )  Theory  “baby biographies”  “The mind of the child” (Preyer, 1909a, 1909b)  “A biographical sketch of an infant” (Darwin, 1877)  No specific theoretical approach to studying motor development

Implications for current research on motor development  This period demonstrates the use of longitudinal observation and description as a scientific method.  To see the behaviors in a longitudinal context. Example: To begin a study of a particular aspect of motor development with the use of longitudinal case studies.

Implications for current practice from the study of motor development  Use longitudinal observation to help a person learn a new skill or improve an old skill.

§4.3 Maturational Period  the real beginnings of the study of motor development  neuro-maturational  Maturationis

 As with the previous period, the scientists of this period were not so much interested in motor development itself as with what studying motor development could say about the process and causes of development in general.

 scientific method still involved longitudinal observation and description  the beginnings of an experimental approach to studying motor development were present

Implications for current research on motor development  two main methods of studying motor development:  description  the co-twin experimental method (more sparingly )

Implications for current practice from the study of motor development  For those individuals who are concerned with motor development as a profession, for example, a teacher, therapist or pediatrician, the implications of holding a strict maturationist viewpoint are worrying.  Bayley Scales

§4.4 Normative/Descriptive Period  scholars of physical education “Development of motor coordination in boys and girls”  focus on the product of motor development rather than the underlying processes  study at one period of time rather than across time

 two main types of studies  One type studied the changing motor performance of skills across age  how the motor skill is produced from a biomechanical perspective  perceptual-motor development intervention methodology

Implications for current research on motor development  the growing recognition of an interactionist perspective  the cost-effectiveness and fault of cross- sectional

Implications for practice from the study of motor development  First the studies of motor performance outcomes were reflected in an impetus to get standardized tests of physical fitness and motor skills that provides teachers with benchmarks on which to judge the motor development of their students.

§4.5 Information Processing Period  an explosion of interest in motor development  “Mechanisms of Motor Skill Development”  a computer model of the brain  children’s perceptual-cognitive processes

 the information processing paradigm differed from previous experimental designs in two ways  First, while the cross-sectional design remained, age was no longer the main independent variable  The second change in experimental design was a focus on simple movements

Researchers who were not influenced by the information processing approach, continued to concentrate on studying developmental sequences with a more overt interactionist perspective.

Attention Reaction- choice Perception Memory Feedback Movement progress Input Output

Implications for current research on motor development  focus on underlying processes that change across age, as opposed to describing how the motor skills themselves change is the main legacy of this period.

Implications for practice from the study of motor development  children are slow processors of information  the change from younger to older children is not always a linear  the methods of teaching new motor skills to younger children need to take into account these information processing differences and alter teaching based on

§4.6 Dynamic Systems Period  a new theoretical perspective for understanding motor development founded on “principles drawn from philosophy, biology, engineering science and, in particular, non- equilibrium thermodynamics and the ecological approach to perception and action”

 instead of considering the CNS to be the most important contributer to movement, the influence of other organismic or task/environmental constraints is recognized.

 non-linear limit-cycle oscillators  Two other complementary conceptual contributions to the dynamic systems approach came from a unique 10-day conference  the concept of constraints  a “rate-limiting” constraint

 This new conceptualization of the control and development of motor behavior led to profoundly different kinds of experiments

Implications for current research on motor development  The focus from underlying processes to underlying principles of change.  three additional study designs  expert-novice design  age-constant design  developmental age design

Implications for practice from the study of motor development  traditional teaching methods such as showing or telling a child to change their pattern of coordination may not be as effective as changing a task parameter or the environmental set up.

§4.7 Developmental Motor Neuroscience Period  This period was recently proposed as a post-dynamics systems period  two complementary and parallel trends occurring:  neuro-functional assessment  proposing models

Non-invasive methods of investigating brain function  Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, TMS  functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, fMRI  Electroencephalography, EEG

The concepts and methodology of computational neuroscientists  model motor control through a combination of engineering and neuroanatomical principles  less used in practice

§4.8 SUMMARY  reviewed the major theoretical approaches  each succeeding theory did not replace the previous one, they are built on top of one another

 most methods have not been dropped along the way and are still in use today as alternative designs.  the important to note the difference between a true “developmental” question and an “age-comparison” question.

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