1. A Topical Approach to Life-Span development 6e
Chapter Five:
Motor, Sensory, and Perceptual Development
John W. Santrock

2. Dynamic Systems View Dynamic systems theory (by Esther Thelen)
Infants assemble motor skills for perceiving and acting (perceptions and actions are coupled)
Motivation creates new behaviors
Perceptions “fine tunes” movements with repetitive actions
Infants explore and select possible solutions of new task; assembles adaptive patterns

3. Reflexes Reflexes Description Sucking
Automatic sucking object placed in newborn’s mouth
Rooting
Reaction when infant’s cheek is stroked or side of mouth touched
Moro
Startle response in reaction to sudden, intense noise or movement
Grasping
Occurs when something touches infant’s palms;
infant response is to grasp tightly

4. Gross Motor Skills Involve large-muscle activities
Foundations for development
Posture; linked to sensory information for
Regulating balance/equilibrium
Vision and hearing
Self-control increases with infant age
Linked to neural pathway development
Improved by repetitive movements

5. Figure 5.3 - Milestones in Gross Motor Development

6. Gross Motor Skills Childhood
Improved movements; more mastery, confidence
Boys usually outperform girls
Extended periods of paying attention, sitting still
More fatigued from extended inactivity
Benefit more from exercise breaks (15min/2hrs)
Organized sports best for development
Positive and negatives consequences

7. Gross Motor Skills Childhood Organized sports best for development
Provide opportunities to learn how to compete
Improves self-esteem
Opportunities for peer relations/friendships
Reduces risk of becoming obese
Three or more hours per week beyond school

8. Guidelines for Parents and Coaches of Children in SportsDo
Don’t
Make sports fun
Yell or scream at child
Mistakes are okay
Continue condemning
Allow questions
Point out errors in front of others
Show calm manner
Expect instant learning
Respect child’s participation
Expect child to be a pro
Be positive role model
Make fun of the child
Be supportive
Compare child to others
Make sports all work

9. The only quarterback to win a playoff game over age 40
Gross Motor Skills
Adolescence
Skills continue to improve
Adulthood
Peak physical performance before age 30
Often between ages 19 and 26
After age 30; biological functions decline
Not uniform; organ decline varies
Brett Farve
The only quarterback to win a playoff game over age 40

10. Gross Motor Skills Late adulthood
Decreased activity level linked to biological and psychological health
Natural aging leads to gradual deterioration
Lifestyle habits/patterns have impact
Physical activity has more positive effects than educational intervention

11. Fine Motor Skills Infancy
Involves more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity
Reaching and grasping
Size, shape, and texture of object matter
Experience affects vision, perceptions, skills

12. Fine Motor Skills Childhood and adolescence
By age 3; ability to stack/balance objects
Precision increases with age; show desire to build projects — needs adult guidance to complete
Linked to increased myelination of CNS
Hands, coordination improve
Begin to show manipulative skills of adults by age 12
Musical instruments, fine quality crafts

13. Fine Motor Skills Adult development
Skills may decline in middle and late adulthood
Dexterity decreases
In healthy adults, functional skills are good
Competent handwriting into old age (MAYBE!)

14. Fine Motor Skills Older adult development Slowed movements due to
Neural noise: Interference with incoming stimuli
Strategy: Ability to perform as usual
Compensation by engaging in other strategies
Capable of learning new motor tasks; usually perform slower than young adults

15. Sensory and Perceptual
Sensation
Information (stimuli) processed by sensory receptors
Eyes (retina, optic nerve), ears (cochlea, auditory nerve), tongue, nose, skin
Perception
What is perceived (interpreted) from stimuli
Synesthesia

16. Sensory and Perceptual
Ecological view
Perception functions to bring the organism in contact with the environment and increase adaptation.
Perceptual system selects which information to process from environment
Guides active/interactive behaviors

17. Sensory and Perceptual
Infant perception testing
Visual preference method
To determine if infants can distinguish between various stimuli
Habituation: Decreased response to stimuli
Dishabituation: Recovery of habituated response
High-amplitude sucking: Nipple sucking rate indicates preferences/discriminatory abilities

18. Sensory and Perceptual
Infant perception testing
Orienting response
Tracking by moving head or eyes to follow moving object or sounds
Use of startle response — reaction to noise
Equipment used
Video recorders, computers, recorders of bodily functions (heart rate, etc.)

19. Sensory and Perceptual
Visual perception
Variances due to differences in how eyes function over time (colors, distances, light presence)
Infancy: World is “blooming, buzzing confusion”
Visual acuity increases with age
Preference for human faces soon after birth
Discriminates female from male at 3 months

20. Infants’ Visual Perception
Visual Acuity
20/600 at birth, near adult levels by 1 year
Color
Sees some colors by 2 months, has preferences by 4 months
Perceiving Patterns
Prefer patterns at birth; face scanning improves by 2 months
Depth Perception
Developed by 7-8 months
Visual Expectations
Begins by 4 months; all know visual cliff by 6-to-12 months

21. Sensory and Perceptual
Visual perception
Perceptual constancy
Physical world perceptions remain constant
Size constancy
Recognition that object remains the same even though the retinal image changes
Shape constancy
Recognition that object remains the same even though its orientation changes

22. Sensory and Perceptual
Visual perception
Depth perception
Visual cliff experiments
Perceptions affected by experiences
Debate over affect of nature versus nurture

23. Sensory and Perceptual
Childhood
Improved color detection (ages 3-4), visual expectations, controlling eye movements (for reading)
Preschoolers may be farsighted
Signs of vision problems
Rubbing eyes, blinking, squinting
Irritability at games requiring distance vision
Closing one eye, tilting head to see, thrusting head forward to see

24. Sensory and Perceptual
Adulthood and aging
Loss of Accommodation (ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina) — presbyopia
Decreased blood supply to eye — smaller visual field, increased blind spot
Slower dark adaptation, decline in motion sensitivity
Declining color vision: green-blue-violet
Declining depth perception — problems with steps or curbs

25. Blind Spot

26. Figure 5.12 - Glare Vision and Aging

27. Sensory and Perceptual
Diseases of the eyes
Cataracts: Thickening eye lens that causes vision to become cloudy, opaque, distorted
Glaucoma: Damage to optic nerve because of pressure created by buildup of fluid in eye
Macular degeneration: Involves deterioration of retina

28. Hearing Fetus, Infant, and child
Fetus hears in last months before birth
Newborns/Infants:
Loudness: Cannot hear soft sounds well
Less sensitive to pitch; sensitive to human speech
Localization: Distinguish general direction of sound origination
Learn through “Baby Talk”

29. Hearing Fetus, infant, and child Most children’s hearing is adequate
Early screening in infancy for problems
Hearing loss corrections:
Surgery, hearing aids, cochlear implants
Otitis media: Middle ear infection
Unattended results in hearing loss, language development, socialization
Treatments: Antibiotics, tubes in ears

30. Hearing Adolescence Adulthood Most have excellent hearing
Risks for loss: Loud/Maximum volume music
Adulthood
Decline begins about age 40; other factors impact
Males lose sensitivity to high-pitched sounds sooner than females
Gender differences: Due to occupation?
Treatments: Hearing aids, cochlear implants
Pitch Demo

31. Other Senses Touch and pain Adulthood: Most research on old age Smell:
Newborns: Sensitivity to pain, touch
Circumcision of boys; amazing resiliency
Use of anesthesia in surgery is controversial
Adulthood: Most research on old age
Touch sensitivity: Decreases in old age
Smell:
Decline can start in 20s; declines with age/health
Affects satisfaction with life, food

32. Other Senses Taste Fetus: Sensitivity present before birth
Newborns: Facial reactions to various tastes
Infants: Reference for “salty” tastes at 4 mos.
Older adults: Decline in ability to distinguish sour, sweet, and bitter solutions
Severity affected by medications and health
Seasoned food preferences lead to junk food

33. Other Senses Intermodal perception
Ability to relate and integrate information about two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing
Exists in newborns; sharpens with experience in first year

34. Perceptual-Motor Coupling
Distinction between perceiving and doing?
Controversial for some researchers
Explores how people assemble motor behaviors for perceiving and acting
Babies coordinate movements with perceptual information to maintain balance, reach for objects, etc
Driving a car is coupling; declines in late adulthood

35. The End