1. Motor Performance During Childhood
chapter 4
Motor Performance During Childhood

2. Overview of the Chapter
Understanding how motor skills develop
Four guiding principles
Reflexes and reactions
Rudimentary movements
Fundamental motor skills
Proficiency barrier and transitional skills
Categories of skills: locomotor, nonlocomotor, object control
Modifying task demands

3. Use of Motor Skills Motor milestones Fundamental movement patterns
Skill for participation
Reasons to monitor motor skills
Unusual deviations should be referred for further evaluation
Base movement experiences on normal sequential development
Factors that emerge without or with practice
Motor skills are important in American culture

4. Four Guiding Principles
Children are not miniature adults
Age differences in skills
Why do skills change?
Boys and girls are more alike than different
Gender differences small before puberty
Opportunities for practice and encouragement
Good things are earned: Phylogenetic versus ontogenetic skills
No body is perfect: Practice and feedback are essential

5. Reflexes, Reactions, and Rudimentary Movements
Reflexes—Moro (startle)
Reactions—balance adjustments (figure 4.1)
Rudimentary movements—phylogenetic skills and motor milestones (see figure 4.2 on page 67 of the textbook)
Nature versus nurture (twin studies)

6. Figure 4.1 Developmental Motor Skill Acquisition
Reprinted from Gallagher (1984).

7. Order for Motor Milestones
Child prone
Chin raised
Chest raised
Reaching
Sit with support
Sit on parent’s lap, grasp object
Walk when held by hand
Creep (continued)

8. Order for Motor Milestones (continued)
Stand holding on
Stand with help
Sit alone
Sit on chair
Pull to stand
Climb stairs
Stand alone
Walk alone

9. Results of Twin Studies for “Jimmy and Johnny”
Short-term benefit—trained twin performed skill earlier
No long-term benefit—untrained twin “caught up”
Skill acquisition was easier when taught at typical age
Infants and children can benefit from early training

10. Results of Deprivation Studies
Phylogenetic skills are influenced by genetics with little impact by practice
Phylogenetic skills develop without practice when children are given opportunity
Ontogenetic skills respond to practice but early practice produces only short-term benefits

11. Fundamental Motor Skills
Locomotor—general patterns emerge and are refined during childhood: running, walking, hopping, skipping
Manipulative skills—used to interact with an object: catching, kicking, striking, throwing
Nonlocomotor skills—bending, stretching, reaching
Intra- and intertask sequences

12. Learning Motor Skills
Proficiency barrier—children master most fundamental skills but need practice to move to the specific use of the skill
Transitional skills—practice helps children move (transition) through the proficiency barrier into sport-specific use of the skill: kicking a ball versus kicking a soccer ball on goal

13. Specific Sport Skills Requires a lot of practice
Sports, dance, and gymnastics require combinations of skills in novel ways and often quickly
Bloom’s taxonomy (table 4.3)

14. Table 4.3 Taxonomy of Psychomotor and Cognitive Domains
Action descriptors
Cognitive
Perceiving
Name, identify
Knowledge
Define, list, state
Patterning
Demonstrate
Comprehen-sion
Give example, compare
Adapting
Modify
Application
Demonstrate, calculate
Refining
Transfer, use in game
Analysis
Distinguish, test, examine
(continued)

15. Table 4.3 Taxonomy of Psychomotor and Cognitive Domains (continued)
Action descriptors
Cognitive
Varying
Combine, create
Synthesis
Propose, design, construct
Valuing
Judge, correct
Evaluation
Judge, predict, choose

16. Locomotor Skills Walking and running
Transition from nonflight to flight phase
Running speed (figure 4.3)
Jumping, hopping, galloping, sliding, and skipping
Climbing

17. Figure 4.3 Running Speed During Childhood
Reprinted from Espenschade and Eckert (1974).

18. Manipulative Skills Catching Striking and kicking
Throwing (figure 4.4): Explanations are evolution, sociocultural, practice
Speed–accuracy trade-off

19. Figure 4.4 Effect Size for Overarm Throwing
Adapted from Thomas and French (1985).

20. Other Issues Motor abilities Modifying task demands Genetic Practice
Target size
Distance
Object size