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Motor, Sensory and Perceptual Development

Motor skills develop from reflexes in infancy to increased control and coordination during childhood. Reflexes are automatic responses that are important for development but disappear as voluntary control increases. Gross motor skills like rolling, crawling, and walking emerge from reflexes and allow interaction with the environment. Fine motor skills like grasping and hand-eye coordination also improve from infancy to childhood to allow more precise activities. Development follows a general pattern but varies between individuals.

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Glenda Galangan
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70 views10 pages

Motor, Sensory and Perceptual Development

Motor skills develop from reflexes in infancy to increased control and coordination during childhood. Reflexes are automatic responses that are important for development but disappear as voluntary control increases. Gross motor skills like rolling, crawling, and walking emerge from reflexes and allow interaction with the environment. Fine motor skills like grasping and hand-eye coordination also improve from infancy to childhood to allow more precise activities. Development follows a general pattern but varies between individuals.

Uploaded by

Glenda Galangan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2/16/2011

Chapter 5 Motor, Sensory and Perceptual Development

Objective for Todays Class:


What are reflexes and why are they important? How do our motor skills develop and change?

Motor Development
In order to develop motor skills, infants must perceive something in the _______________________________________________ _

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Reflexes
Are __________________________________
These movements are automatic and beyond the newborns control _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _

Reflex

Stimulation Flash of light; Puff of air Sole of foot stroked Palms touched Sudden stimulation (such as hearing a loud noise or being dropped) Cheek stroked or side of mouth touched Infant held above surface and feet lowered to touch surface Object touching mouth Infant placed on back

Infants Response Closes both eyes Fans out toes, twists foot in Grasps tightly Arches back, throws head back, flings out arms and legs and then rapidly closes them to center of body Turns head, opens mouth, begins sucking Moves feet as if to walk Sucks automatically Forms fists with both hands and usually turns head to the right

Blinking Babinski Grasping Moro (startle) Rooting Stepping Sucking Tonic Neck

Why Do We Care About Reflexes?


Some reflexes persist throughout the life Coughing, blinking, and yawning Some reflexes disappear several months _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Often the movements of some reflexes become incorporated into more complex, voluntary movements

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The Development of Motor Skills


Think on your own. What is a motor development milestone?

Riley rolled over today! Jonathan just started crawling! Olivia took her first steps last week!
Parents of young children often are eager to announce these developmental milestones, that reflect the infants ability to interact socially with the family!

Gross motor skills


Emerge directly from reflexes.
These are physical abilities ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ _____________________________.

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Gross motor activities are those such that involve the movement of the entire body____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ _

Fine Motor Skills


After infancy fine motor skills progress rapidly and older children become more dexterous _____________________________________ _____________________________________ These consist of ________ _____________________________________ especially of the hands and fingers.

Fine motor activities are those such as drawing, writing your name, picking up a coin, buttoning or zipping a coat.

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Head Control
At birth infants can turn their heads from __________________________________ By 2-3 months they can lift their heads while lying on their stomachs By ___________________________ infants can keep heads erect while being held or supported in a sitting position

Before you walk, you must learn to.


At around 6-8 months, infants become capable of _____________________________ To master walking (around 13-14 months), infants must acquire distinct skills
Standing upright Maintaining balance Stepping alternately Using perceptual information to evaluate surfaces

Crawling
Begins as belly-crawling
The inchworm belly-flop style

Most belly crawlers then shift to hands-andknees, or in some cases, hands-and-feet Some infants will adopt a different style of locomotion in place of crawling such as bottom-shuffling while some infants skip crawling altogether _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________

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Belly-crawling

Hands-and-knees crawling

Hands-and-feet crawling

Walking Stepping
Children do not step spontaneously until approximately 10 months because they must _________________________________________________ Maintaining balance when transferring weight from foot to foot seems to be key Thelen and Ulrich (1991) found that 6- and 7month-olds, if held upright by an adult, could demonstrate the mature pattern of walking of alternating steps on a treadmill

Gross Motor Skills


Childhood
As children age they gain greater control over their bodies
Boys usually outperform girls

Organized sports are one way of ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ _______________________________________

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Gross Motor Skills


Adolescence and Adulthood
Gross motor skills improve during adolescence with _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

No matter how well individuals take care of themselves, aging eventually produces declines in biological functions.
_____________________________________________

Infants hardly have any control over their fine motor skills at birth, but they have many components of what will become finely coordinated arm, hand and finger movements

Fine Motor Development


_____________________________________________
Newborns make poorly coordinated swipes or swings toward an object in front of them Usually drops out around 7 weeks of age

At 3 months
________________________________________________________ and gradually starts to improve
Infants have developed the necessary head and shoulder control

By 7 months
The arms become more independent
Infants can reach for objects with one arm rather than extending both

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Test your knowledge!


Which of the following is an example of a fine-motor skill? Sitting alone, without support Crawling Eating with a spoon Climbing up stairs

Fine Motor Grasping


Palmar grasp
________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________
3 months: can adjust the grasp to the size and shape of the object 5 months: can hold object in one hand while exploring it with the other hand

___________________________________________________
Using the thumb and forefinger in a wellcoordinated movement
12 months: can pick up raisins and blades of grass, turn knobs, and open/close small boxes

Fine Motor Skills Childhood


Fine motor coordination is becoming much more precise
________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

During middle and late childhood children use their hands more skillfully as tools
_____________________________________________

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In adulthood, fine motor skills may undergo some decline in middle and late adulthood as dexterity _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________
For example, older adults are slower in handwriting than younger adults.

Handedness
Young babies reach for objects without a preference for one hand over the other The preference for one hand over the other becomes stronger and more consistent during __________________________________________________
By the time children are ready to enter kindergarten, handedness is well established and very difficult to reverse

Handedness is determined by heredity and environmental factors


Approximately 10% of children write left-handed

Approximately 85-95% of right-handed people primarily process speech in the brains left hemisphere
However, approximately 10% of lefthanders process speech in their right hemisphere and about 15% of lefthanders process speech equally in both hemispheres

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Next
How does our thinking change with age?

10

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