1. Perceptual–Motor Development
chapter 20
Perceptual–Motor Development
Joseph P. Winnick and Barry W. Lavay

2. Chapter Outline Overview of the perceptual–motor process
Understanding sensory systems

3. Perceptual–Motor Development
All movement activities are PM experiences.
A process to permit individuals to provide
meaning to sensory information and formulate
appropriate motor responses:
receive
transmit
organize
integrate
attach

4. Perceptual–Motor Ability Deficits
Occurs among many individuals with various
disabilities and might include . . .
poor spatial orientation
poor body awareness
immature body image
clumsiness or awkwardness
coordination deficits
poor balance

5. What Does the Research Say?
1960s and early 1970s: PM programs were strongly advocated and believed to be a significant improvement in academic and intellectual abilities.
Research conducted has not supported this notion (Gallahue & Ozmun, 2002; Kavale & Mattison, 1983).
However, research indicates clearly that PM abilities might be attained through carefully sequenced programs (Cheatum & Hammond, 2000; Sherrill, 2004; Winnick, 1979).
PM training is fundamental to many motor, academic, and functional (ADL) skills.

6. A Simplified Model of the Perceptual–Motor Process

7. Perceptual–Motor Defined
Perception: The monitoring and interpretation of sensory data resulting from the interaction between sensory and CNS processes that occurs at the cognitive level (brain) and enables the individual to derive meaning from information
Motor: The actual movement act
Summary: Everything we do is perceptual– motor!

8. Hitting a Softball: Example of a PM Skill
Input: the ball’s speed, direction, spin, and other flight characteristics.
Integration: information is transmitted to the CNS, where it is perceived as a ball to be hit.
Output: initiate the appropriate response— swing and hit the ball.
Feedback: if the pitch was missed, adjustments to the swing are necessary in similar or future instances.

9. Sensorimotor Activity
Occurs at a subcortical level and does not involve meaning, interpretation, or cortical-level functioning.
Motor responses to sensory input.
The sensory integration process results in perception and other types of sensory data syntheses.
Reflexes and postural reactions.

10. Ecological Approach Perception is specific to each individual.
The environment is perceived directly in terms of its utility or usefulness for the perceiver (Gibson, 1977, 1979).
Individuals perceive the environment in terms of the actions they can exert on it—that is, the affordances provided by the environment.
Example: children might perceive a chair to crawl under, whereas adults perceive it as an object to sit on (Burton, 1990; Davis and Burton, 1991).

11. Perceptual–Motor Deficits or Breakdowns
Input: cannot adequately take in visual or auditory information from the environment, thus information does not appropriately reach the CNS (e.g., deafness, blindness)
Integration: impairs the functioning of the CNS and the quality of information received and the ability to process sensory input (e.g., LD, ADHD, motor planning)
Output: inappropriate functioning during previous steps as well as conditions influence the transmission of information and movement (e.g., CP, SPI)
Feedback: inability to modify or correct behavior (e.g., faulty kinesthetic perception)

12. An Analysis of Prominent Perceptual–Motor Need and Deficit Areas
Disability
Prominent need and deficit areas
Visual disability (visual impairments)
Need to focus on the development of residual visual perceptual abilities and to help the child compensate for visual perceptual–motor deficits by enhancing auditory, vestibular, tactual, and kinesthetic perception. Give particular attention to input and feedback steps in the perceptual–motor process.
Auditory (deaf and hard of hearing)
Need to focus on the development of residual hearing and vestibular abilities (if affected) and help the child compensate by enhancing development associated with sensory systems that are intact. Give particular attention to input, integration, and feedback steps in the perceptual–motor process.
(continued)

13. An Analysis of Prominent Perceptual–Motor Need and Deficit Areas (continued)
Haptic disabilities (primarily children who are clumsy; children with orthopedic, neuromuscular, or neurological impairments)
Need to focus on the development of vestibular, kinesthetic, and tactual perception and to integrate motor experiences with visual and auditory perception. There might be a particular need to focus on input, motor response, and feedback steps.
Mental or affective disabilities (children with intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, and so on)
Need to focus on needs is determined by assessment of perceptual motor abilities. Involvement throughout the perceptual–motor process might exist.

14. Facilitating PM Development
Preschoolers and young children (2 to 7 years)
Movement exploration
Guided discovery
Open-ended tasks with more than one response

15. Teaching PM Skills
Purposeful movement that is motivating and performed in natural settings (e.g., kicking the ball into a goal in a soccer lead-up activity or game)
2. Affordances in the environment to make perceptual judgments and to assess the accuracy of their judgments (e.g., “Can I pass the ball to a teammate without it being intercepted by a defensive player?”; Burton, 1987)

16. Sensory Systems The different sensory systems work
collectively and simultaneously to provide the
individual with information:
tactile
proprioception (kinesthetic)
visual
auditory

17. Tactile Perception
Ability to interpret sensations from the various layers of the skin surfaces of the body
Externally related and responds to touch, feel, and manipulation
Example: to distinguish wet and dry, hot and cold, soft and hard, rough and smooth
Disorganized tactile system
Tactile defensive: sensitive to normal touch that causes a negative or painful reaction
Tactile deprived: have not received necessary amounts of stimulation and crave touch, seeking physical contact

18. Proprioception Sensory stimuli from skin, muscles, tendons,
joints, and vestibular sense receptors that are
within the categories of kinesthetic perception
body awareness
laterality and verticality
balance

19. Kinesthetic Perception
The awareness and memory of movement and position
Internally related and develops from impulses that originate from the body’s proprioceptors
The ability to know a movement, body position, or action before executing it
Feel the correctness of a movement
Basic to all movement and associated with visual–motor and auditory–motor abilities

20. Body Awareness Allows people to derive meaning from
their body; includes . . .
body schema: where the body ends and external space begins
body image: feelings one has about one’s body
body concept: knowledge one has about one’s body

21. Visual Perceptual–Motor Development
Ability to see, fixate, and track includes:
Visual figure-ground perception
Spatial relations
Visual constancy
Visual–motor coordination

22. Visual Figure-Ground Perception
Distinguish the main figure or target from its background.
Differentiate and integrate parts of objects to form meaningful wholes.
Shift attention and ignore irrelevant stimuli.
Examples: picking out a specific letter of the alphabet from a field of extraneous items; tracking moving objects, such as a ball to be hit; observing lines, boundaries, diagrams, or footprints

23. Spatial Relationships
Locate objects in space relative to oneself or self-space (egocentric localization) Example: direction, distance, and depth
Locate objects relative to one another or general space (objective localization)
Example: position on a court

24. Visual Perceptual–Motor Constancy
Recognize objects despite variations in their presentation
Recognize the sameness of an object that might vary in appearance, size, color, texture, brightness, or shape
Example: a football spiraling in the air

25. Visual–Motor Coordination
Ability to coordinate vision with body movements
Combines visual with tactile and kinesthetic perception (not exclusively visual ability)
Eye–limb coordination (eye–hand, eye–foot)
Examples:
Classroom—cutting, pasting, finger painting, drawing, and tracing
Physical education—throwing, catching, kicking, striking

26. Auditory Perceptual–Motor Development
Built on auditory acuity and perception;
includes . . .
auditory figure-ground perception
sound localization and discrimination
temporal auditory perception

27. Auditory Figure-Ground Perception
Distinguish and attend to relevant auditory stimuli against a background of general auditory stimuli
Ignore irrelevant stimuli (noisy gymnasium) and attend to relevant stimuli (teacher directions)
Example: Determining a teacher signal in order to transition

28. Auditory Discrimination
Recognize an auditory stimulus as the same under varying presentations
Recognize and discriminate among variations of auditory stimuli presented in a temporal series, as well as auditory perceptual constancy
Examples: distinguishing different frequencies, qualities, and amplitudes of sound; distinguishing pitch, loudness, and constancy of auditory stimuli

29. Sound Localization
Ability to determine the source or direction of sounds in the environment
Examples: finding the open player calling for the ball; in goal ball, blindfolded players attempting to stop a ball that is emitting a sound

30. Temporal Auditory Perception
Ability to recognize and discriminate among variations of auditory stimuli presented in time
Distinguishing rate, emphasis, tempo, and order of auditory stimuli
Example: difficulties in rhythmic movement, dance, and singing games

31. Auditory–Motor Coordination
Ability to coordinate auditory stimuli with body movements
Examples: responding to a beat in music (e.g., ear–foot coordination) or to a particular cadence (e.g., football signals); performing a routine to a musical accompaniment

32. Typical Components and Activities Associated With Sensorimotor Development
Typical activities
Tactile integration
Water activities; massage; stroking; partner activities; bare-footed activities; movement education activities; activities performed on various surfaces; handling objects of various textures; crawling through tunnels; tactually discriminating between familiar and unfamiliar objects
Kinesthetic integration
Naming body parts; moving body parts for a purpose; active movements that develop a knowledge of body parts, their position in space, and the ability to innervate them (time, space, force, flow of movement)
(continued)

33. Typical Components and Activities Associated With Sensorimotor Development (continued)
Vestibular integration
Rocking and cradling in arms, cribs, or chairs; simple bouncing activities on spring-type or trampoline equipment; scooter and vestibular board activities; simple swinging activities using hammocks or other simple swing-type supplies; therapy ball activities; sitting and standing postures; nonlocomotor movements
Visual integration
Activities involving object manipulation, including ball handling in which speed, distance, size, color, and mass are modified; recognition and tracking of objects; looking; sorting; fundamental visual–motor activities; finding objects
Auditory integration
Activities involving sound recognition; auditory discrimination; sound localization; auditory-figure ground; fundamental motor activities; listening and responding to auditory stimuli; making sounds and talking; activities involving auditory memory