Life Span Motor Development
H4 Early Motor Development
Newborn infants exhibit spontaneous and reflexive movements. Becoming toddlers, they
begin to attain motor milestones particular movement skills that eventually lead to
locomotion (zich verplaatsen), reaching and upright posture.
They gain ability to lift their heads, sit up and eventually stand. Maturation of the central
nervous system maturational perspective.
Ecological perspective interplay of many systems (cognitive, perceptual, motor) leads to
the movement adaptations.
Newborn movements
1. Random or spontaneous movements
2. Infantile reflexes
Spontaneous movements
- Infants’ movements that occur without any apparent
stimulation
- Supine kicking and walking
o Supine kicking supine position (op de rug
liggen) while thrusting his legs
o Rhythmical; the kicks have coordinated pattern.
The ankle, knee and hip joints moved
cooperatively with each other, not
independently from one another. Looks like
walking steps of an adult.
o Infants tend to move the joints in unison
(eenstemmig) rather than in sequence
(opeenvolgend)
o They also tend to activate both the muscles for
flexing the limb (flexors) and the muscles for
extending the limb (extensors) cocontraction
Adults alternate flexor and extensor muscles.
o Alternating and synchronous kicks are evident after 6 months, indicating that
infants are developing more ways to coordinate the two limbs
- Spontaneous arm movements
o Well-coordinated extension of the elbow, wrist and finger joints. The fingers
do not extend independently or one at a time, but in unison with the hand,
wrist and elbow.
o It takes infants several months to begin opening their fingers independently.
o These movements appear to be influenced by environmental constraints.
- Infants’ movements, though not always goal directed or goal achieving, can be
coordinated, and the coordination patterns may resemble patterns seen in adults.
, 1. At a young age they exhibit underlying rhythmic coordination within limbs or
pairs of limbs
2. These coordination patterns resemble the coordination patterns we see in
later voluntary movement
Infantile reflexes
- An involuntary, stereotypical movement response to a specific stimulus; only seen
during infancy.
- The 3 types of infantile reflexes:
1. Primitive reflexes around from the beginning
An unvoluntary response to specific stimulation
that is often mediated by lower brain centers
1. Reflexes are responses to specific external stimuli, whereas
spontaneous movements do not result from any apparent
external stimuli
2. Reflexive movements are specific and often localized, whereas
spontaneous movements tend to be nonspecific and
generalized
3. The same stimuli will elicit a specific reflex over and over again
Strong at birth en lose their strength over time until
they disappear around the 4th month
Example: a newborn grasps an object placed in her
hand, automatically and without conscious
thought. The palmar grasp and the asymmetric tonic neck reflex, figure
2, the labyrinthine righting reflex and the stepping relfex, figure 3.
2. Postural reactions moving upright in the world
Gravity reflexes, help the infant automatically maintain posture in a
changing environment. Some keep the head upright, thereby keeping
the breathing passages open
They appear after 2 months old.
Example: an infant can roll over only after derogative righting appears
after 4 months old.
These reflexes don’t literally disappear. For example, when you tend to
fall you extend your arms.
3. Locomotor reflexes moving in place
They appear similar and related to a voluntary movement (for example
swimming)
They appear much earlier than the corresponding voluntary
behaviours and typically disappear months before the infant attempts
to voluntary locomotor skill.
3 locomotor reflexes:
1. Stepping
2. Swimming
3. crawling
, Appearance and disappearance of reflexes:
- infantile reflexes gradually show a less specific respons with time; eventually you can
no longer stimulate these reflexes.
- Primitive reflexes start to weaken or become modified after about 2 weeks, they learn
to adapt their reflexes after 2 weeks in order to modify the movement outcome
(faster sucking leads tof aster supply of milk)
- An individual may deviate from typical development in 2 ways:
1. Exhibiting a reflex when the individual should not
H4 Early Motor Development
Newborn infants exhibit spontaneous and reflexive movements. Becoming toddlers, they
begin to attain motor milestones particular movement skills that eventually lead to
locomotion (zich verplaatsen), reaching and upright posture.
They gain ability to lift their heads, sit up and eventually stand. Maturation of the central
nervous system maturational perspective.
Ecological perspective interplay of many systems (cognitive, perceptual, motor) leads to
the movement adaptations.
Newborn movements
1. Random or spontaneous movements
2. Infantile reflexes
Spontaneous movements
- Infants’ movements that occur without any apparent
stimulation
- Supine kicking and walking
o Supine kicking supine position (op de rug
liggen) while thrusting his legs
o Rhythmical; the kicks have coordinated pattern.
The ankle, knee and hip joints moved
cooperatively with each other, not
independently from one another. Looks like
walking steps of an adult.
o Infants tend to move the joints in unison
(eenstemmig) rather than in sequence
(opeenvolgend)
o They also tend to activate both the muscles for
flexing the limb (flexors) and the muscles for
extending the limb (extensors) cocontraction
Adults alternate flexor and extensor muscles.
o Alternating and synchronous kicks are evident after 6 months, indicating that
infants are developing more ways to coordinate the two limbs
- Spontaneous arm movements
o Well-coordinated extension of the elbow, wrist and finger joints. The fingers
do not extend independently or one at a time, but in unison with the hand,
wrist and elbow.
o It takes infants several months to begin opening their fingers independently.
o These movements appear to be influenced by environmental constraints.
- Infants’ movements, though not always goal directed or goal achieving, can be
coordinated, and the coordination patterns may resemble patterns seen in adults.
, 1. At a young age they exhibit underlying rhythmic coordination within limbs or
pairs of limbs
2. These coordination patterns resemble the coordination patterns we see in
later voluntary movement
Infantile reflexes
- An involuntary, stereotypical movement response to a specific stimulus; only seen
during infancy.
- The 3 types of infantile reflexes:
1. Primitive reflexes around from the beginning
An unvoluntary response to specific stimulation
that is often mediated by lower brain centers
1. Reflexes are responses to specific external stimuli, whereas
spontaneous movements do not result from any apparent
external stimuli
2. Reflexive movements are specific and often localized, whereas
spontaneous movements tend to be nonspecific and
generalized
3. The same stimuli will elicit a specific reflex over and over again
Strong at birth en lose their strength over time until
they disappear around the 4th month
Example: a newborn grasps an object placed in her
hand, automatically and without conscious
thought. The palmar grasp and the asymmetric tonic neck reflex, figure
2, the labyrinthine righting reflex and the stepping relfex, figure 3.
2. Postural reactions moving upright in the world
Gravity reflexes, help the infant automatically maintain posture in a
changing environment. Some keep the head upright, thereby keeping
the breathing passages open
They appear after 2 months old.
Example: an infant can roll over only after derogative righting appears
after 4 months old.
These reflexes don’t literally disappear. For example, when you tend to
fall you extend your arms.
3. Locomotor reflexes moving in place
They appear similar and related to a voluntary movement (for example
swimming)
They appear much earlier than the corresponding voluntary
behaviours and typically disappear months before the infant attempts
to voluntary locomotor skill.
3 locomotor reflexes:
1. Stepping
2. Swimming
3. crawling
, Appearance and disappearance of reflexes:
- infantile reflexes gradually show a less specific respons with time; eventually you can
no longer stimulate these reflexes.
- Primitive reflexes start to weaken or become modified after about 2 weeks, they learn
to adapt their reflexes after 2 weeks in order to modify the movement outcome
(faster sucking leads tof aster supply of milk)
- An individual may deviate from typical development in 2 ways:
1. Exhibiting a reflex when the individual should not
