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

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

3. Perceptual–Motor Development
All movement activities are perceptual–motor experiences. This process allows individuals to provide meaning to sensory information and formulate appropriate motor responses. It involves a number of operational procedures:
Receive
Transmit
Organize
Integrate
Attach

4. Perceptual–Motor Ability Deficits
Occurs among many individuals with various
disabilities and might include
poor spatial orientation,
difficulty with body awareness,
immature body image,
clumsiness or awkwardness,
coordination deficits, and
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 has not supported this notion (Gallahue & Ozmun, 2006; Kavale & Mattison, 1983; Payne & Issacs, 2007).
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. Simplified Model of the Perceptual–Motor Process

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

8. Hitting a Softball: Example of a PM Skill
Input: Includes ball 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 future situations.

9. Sensorimotor Activity
Occurs at a subcortical level and does not involve meaning, interpretation, or cortical- level functioning.
Motor responses to sensory input.
Sensory integration 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 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 & Broadhead, 2007; Davis & 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 relevant information received and the ability to process sensory input (e.g., LD, ADHD, lack of motor planning).
(continued)

12. Perceptual–Motor Deficits or Breakdowns (continued)
Output:
Inappropriate functioning during previous steps as well as conditions that influence the transmission of information and movement (e.g., CP, SPI lack of tactual and vestibular perception).
Feedback:
Unable to modify or correct behavior (e.g., faulty kinesthetic perception).

13. Analysis of Prominent Perceptual–Motor Need and Deficit Areas

14. Facilitating and Nurturing Perceptual–Motor Development
Preschoolers and young children (2 to 7 years)
Movement exploration
Guided discovery
Open-ended tasks with more than one way to respond

15. Teaching Purposeful Perceptual–Motor 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 the 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 sensory systems work collectively and simultaneously to provide the individual with the following information:
Tactile
Proprioceptive (kinesthetic)
Visual
Auditory
Promote the multisensory approach.

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: distinguishing wet and dry, hot and cold, soft and hard, rough and smooth
(continued)

18. Tactile Perception (continued)
Disorganized tactile system
Tactile defensive: sensitivity 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 (i.e., weighted vest)

19. Proprioception Sensory stimuli from skin, muscles, tendons,
joints, and vestibular sense receptors that are
in the categories of kinesthetic perception:
Body awareness
Laterality and verticality
Balance

20. Kinesthetic Perception
The awareness and memory of movement and position
Internally related; develops from impulses that originate from the body’s proprioceptors (i.e. , muscles, tendons, joints)
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

21. Body Awareness Allows people to derive meaning from
their body and includes the following:
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

22. Visual Perceptual–Motor Development
Ability to see, fixate, and track; includes
visual figure–ground perception,
spatial relations,
visual constancy, and
visual–motor coordination.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

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

27. Auditory Perceptual–Motor Development
Built on auditory acuity and perception and
includes
auditory figure–ground perception,
sound localization and discrimination, and
temporal auditory perception.

28. 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.

29. 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 frequencies, qualities, and amplitudes of sound; distinguishing pitch, loudness, and constancy of auditory stimuli.

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

31. 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

32. 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

33. Application Example See application examples in the textbook for
ideas regarding fun, stimulating activities
designed to promote the sensory systems:
Spiderweb: spatial awareness
Walk the Pirate’s Plank: dynamic balance
Drive Your Car: directionality
Surprise Bag: tactile awareness

34. Typical Components and Activities Associated With Sensorimotor Development