1. Introduction to Motor Development
Chapter 1
© 2012 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2. Human Motor Development
Process through which one passes throughout life
Changes in our movement ability through the lifespan
Academic field

3. Which Definition?
“changes in motor behavior which reflect the interaction of the maturing organism and its environment” (Scholarly Directions Committee, 1974)
“changes in movement competencies from infancy to adulthood and involves many aspects of human behavior, both as they affect movement development and as movement development affects them” (Keogh, 1977)

4. Which Definition?
“the change in motor behavior across the lifespan and the processes which underlie these changes” (Clark & Whitehall, 1989)
“the sequential, continuous age-related process whereby an individual progresses from simple, unorganized, and unskilled movement to the achievement of highly organized, complex motor skills and finally to the adjustment of skills that accompanies aging” (Haywood & Getchell, 2005)

5. Motor Development
Academic Field
“study of changes in human motor behavior over the lifespan, the processes that underlie these changes, and the factors that affect them”

6. Working Definition
“Human motor development is an academic field of study; it is also a human lifelong process involving the progressions and regressions in our movement ability as we pass through life”

7. Importance of Motor Development
To understand the way people normally develop movement skills
Help individuals improve or perfect movement performance
To understand the way special populations develop movement skills
Help special populations improve or perfect movement performance

8. Why Study Motor Development?
Table 1-1

9. Domains

10. Domains Cognitive domain Affective domain Motor domain Physical domain
Concerns human intellectual development
Affective domain
Concerned with the social and emotional aspects of human development
Motor domain
Development of human movement and factors that affect that development
Physical domain
All types of physical/bodily change

11. Development
Changes through which all individuals pass across their lifespans
Domains
Terms:
Developmentally appropriate
Age appropriate
Individual appropriate

12. Development Refers to changes that occur as one passes through life
Includes both maturation and growth

13. Elements of Developmental Change
Qualitative
Development change is not “just more of something”
Sequential
Certain motor patterns precede others
Cumulative
Behaviors are additive
Directional
Development has an ultimate goal
Multifactorial
No single factor direct change
Individual
Rate of change varies for all people
Table 1-2

14. Maturation & Growth Maturation Growth
Qualitative functional changes occurring with age
Growth
Quantitative structural changes occurring with age

15. Developmental Terms Cephalocaudal Proximodistal
Development from head to tail
Learning to walk
Proximodistal
Development from the body’s center to periphery
Prenatal growth
Acquisition of motor skill

16. How is this child demonstrating
Developmental Terms
Differentiation
Progression from gross or immature movement to precise, well-controlled, and intentional movement
Learning to walk
Integration
Functioning of systems together
How is this child demonstrating
Integration?

17. Developmental Terms Gross movement Fine movement
Movement controlled by the large muscles or muscle groups
Legs
Fine movement
Movement controlled by the small muscles or muscle groups
Hands
Terms can be used together
Categorize movement
Describe progression and regression

18. Process-Product Controversy
Product approach in the study of human movement
The end result, or outcome, is the focus
Task-oriented approach
Process approach in the study of human movement
The emphasis is on the movement itself, with little attention to outcome

19. Age Periods Throughout Lifespan
Terms in Figure 1-5 are helpful in organizing discussions and communicating statements about an individual at a particular time in life
Figure 1-5

20. Stages of Development Age-stages
Phase, time, levels, periods
Unique, hierarchical, or universal behavior at a particular time in life
Controversy over whether the stages of development actually exist

21. Models of Development
Models explain movement behavior from birth to death
Cratty (1970): explain changes as a function of age
Gallahue & Ozmun (2005): hourglass model; stages developed upward with time
Newell’s model based on constraints
Interactive role of an individual’s structure and function, the task, and environmental conditions on human motor development

22. Mountain of Motor Development
Figure 1-6

23. Mountain of Motor Development
Ascend up the mountain
A metaphor of motor development
Progress from the prenatal period, to the base of the mountain, and finally the peak
Must contend with environmental changes

24. Mountain of Motor Development
Periods
Reflexive
Prenatal-few weeks after birth
Involuntary response to stimuli
Survival
Brain-stem
Preadapted
Movement produced from higher brain centers
Conscious, voluntary
Fundamental Patterns
Build on movement skills
Includes fundamental locomotor skills, object control, fine motor control
Critical to future motor performance

25. Mountain of Motor Development
Periods
Context-specific
Begin to experience one or more peaks in movement skills
Life experiences, personal likes and dislikes of movements
Skillful
Experience and practice
Not achieved by all
Requires motivation, opportunity, instruction, practice over years
In general, cannot be competent in every skill
Compensation
Associated with injury: with practice and time, may return to previous skill level
Aging: inevitable decline; compensate with new skill

26. History of the Field 1787-1928 Precursor Period
Descriptive observation
Darwin’s “Biographical Sketch of an Infant”
Tiedemann watched the motor behavior of his son’s first 2.5 years
Interested in the function of the mind, but this early research benefited motor development greatly

27. History of the Field 1928-1946 Maturational Period
Biological processes influence motor development
Product-process –oriented information
Bayley’s scales
Bayley’s scales are norm-referenced scales that follow motor behavior of the first 3 years of life
Still used today

28. History of the Field 1946-1970 Normative/Descriptive Period
Mid-1940s through 1960 ~dormant period
1960 ~ Kephart’s Slow Learner in the Classroom
Kephart maintained that certain movement activities enhanced academic performance
Not supported by research, still influences professional practice today

29. History of the Field
1960s – resurgence in study due to interest in children with disabilities
Primary interests also on motor skills, not cognitive abilities
Tests for motor development written
A lot of study in biomechanical analysis of movement

30. History of the Field 1970-Present Process-Oriented Period
Study of the processes of motor development
Psychologist return to the study of motor behavior via processing information
Dynamical systems theory (1980)
“systems undergoing change are complex, coordinated, and somewhat self-organizing”
Examines movement control and coordination
Explains process of development

31. Interdisciplinary Approach
Today, better evaluation of movement working with specialists in other fields
Biomechanics
Exercise physiology
Working together, experts can more accurately detect subtle movement changes and differences

32. Research Designs Research Design Description Cross-sectional
Comparison of two or more persons or groups at one point in time
Longitudinal
A study over a long period of time
Time-lag
Different cohorts are compared at different times
Sequential-cohort
Integrates the cross-sectional, longitudinal, and time-lag designs within one study

33. Research Designs Research Design PRO Cross-sectional Longitudinal
Administratively efficient
Quickly completed
Age differences can be observed
Longitudinal
Change can be observed across ages
Sequential-Cohort
Accounts for generational (cohort) effect

34. Research Designs Research Design CON Cross-sectional Longitudinal
Cannot observe change
Can’t determine accurate age of groups
Age and cohort are confounded
Longitudinal
Administratively inefficient
Age and time of measurements are confounded
Subjects may be influenced by repeated testing
Subjects may drop out
Sequential-Cohort
Costly
Difficult to analyze statistically

35. Hypothetical Study
Sequential~Cohort Design

36. Key Terms