Introduction The three major motor developmental theories are maturation, sensory processing and dynamic. Maturation refers to the biological growth processes that begin at conception and lead to the maturity of the body. These innate (inborn) changes occur in the body, brain and nervous system automatically in an orderly sequence at about the same time for most children. Because these changes are innate, they are not influenced by environmental experiences. Many of our basic abilities are closely tied to maturation. Maturation consists of three stages of motor development which are Equal Lateral (both sided motor movements), Lateral (one-sided motor pattern movements) and Bilateral (opposite side or cross pattern motor movements). Sensory processing is a complex set of actions that enable the brain to understand what’s going on both inside your own body, and in the world around you. The brain receives information through the senses: processes this information and organizes a motor response i.e sensory integration- function (A. Jean Ayres, 1985). The sensory processing contains five sensory systems in the Sensory Integration Model which are; Tactile (sense of touch), Vestibular (how the body responds to gravity), Proprioceptive (internal body awareness), Auditory (receive, identify, discriminate, understand and respond to vibration) and Visual (sense of sight, linked to the vestibular). The Dynamic theory is the nervous system that is considered part of the developing motor system, the Nervous System must dynamically change and interact with other systems to achieve co-ordinated movement (Kamm, Thelen and Jenson, 1990). There are four stages of Motor Development which are shared with the Dynamic Theory such as reflex, ru... ... middle of paper ... ... conclusion maturational theorist Arnold Gesell believes that a child will develop biologically and their environment has little involvement in a child’s development. Through a numerous of conducted experiments, he was able to put together and create a schedule of when milestones will occur which is known as the ‘Gesell Developmental Schedule’ where he was able to compare a child’s development to the standard norm. He also created the “Gesell Maturational Theory’, where heredity is of much more importance in their growth and development than the child’s nurturing environment. Gesell’s maturational theory is seen yet till today in a child’s everyday lives, from the time they are in the foetus till our adult life. His theory displays both strengths and weaknesses and other theorists challenging his theory but the debate between nature versus nurture will always arise.
Bronfenbrenner theorised that there are many different influences that affect a child’s development, forming 5 systems to categorise certain events, or environments into. This theory helps me to understand the theme of Nature Vs Nurture, as it gives some context as to what environments can affect a child's development. From this, we can work out solutions for each child's situation, to ensure that their development is still progressing.
Esther Thelen’s article “The Improvising Infant: Learning to Move” describes her research into how and why infants use repeated motor sequences. She found these movements are related to the onset of new behaviors. Once an infant has achieved full mastery of the skill, the oscillating movements stopped. Infants do these actions when they are excited or drowsy, and even though the movements are involuntary, the infants can take over the movement for an intentional act, such as demonstrating impatience or getting attention. These movements and what caused them fascinated Thelen, and she began to study them. One particular experiment she ran focused on a disappearing reflex.
While teaching as a psychologist of the Connecticut State Board of Education, Gesell wrote many books about the growth and various functions of the human body. He quickly became aware of the importance and impacts both nature and nurture has on the growing of an infant. The Gesell Institute of Human Development is a nonprofit organization still functioning today; it is known for working to better understand and assist in the research of child development for children of ages 2 ½ to 9.
Sensorimotor stage (birth – 2 years old) – Children begin to make sense of the world around them based on their interaction with their physical environment. Reality begins to be defined.
This process brings an infant to full adulthood. Maturation according to general psychology is primarily based upon individual genetic makeup, universal maturation, and predispositions (Sigelman & Rider, 2014). Cognition is a vitally important element in mental development. Without the ability to acquire an obtain knowledge one cannot gain a sense of consciousness. Both nature and nurture play a role in mental development. Sigmund Freud believed that humans have an unconscious instinct and a requirement to fulfill an urge. He believed that as a child develops there energy is divided into ID (the selfish part of the personality at birth), ego (irrational way of satisfying urges), and superego (moral standards). Erik Erikson’s theory derived from the works of Sigmund Freud. His theory differs from Freud in two major ways. One, he believes that children develop through social demands and biological maturation. Two, he believes that there are eight stages and that the unsuccessful completion of a stage will not hinder you from advancing to the next stage, but will cause complications in the rest of the developmental cycle. B.F Skinner believes that children develop through consequences. As simple as these principles sound they are backed by the logic of operant conditioning. This states, learned behaviors become more or less probable depending on the consequences it produces (Sigelman & Rider,
Motor development is directly associated to the advancement of our capabilities for voluntary physical movement. However, these changes take affect through the duration of our life, the most significant changes for humans occur between birth and 2 years of age. Motor skills is defined as “the learned ability to move some part of the body, from a large leap to a flicker of the eyelid” (Berger 2008). When a baby is born, they immediately are able to move their legs, grab things with their fingers and show facial expressions. This is due to the automatic movements that we refer to as reflexes. These reflexes includes the ability to maintain oxygen supply, maintain a constant body temperature and the ability to manage feeding, which are all essential for survival (Berger 2008). Usually at about 5 months, babies start to develop what 's called gross motor skills. According to Dorothy Einon “gross motor skills are larger movements a baby makes with his arms, legs, feet, or his entire body.
Sensation refers to the process of sensing what is around us in our environment by using our five senses, which are touching, smell, taste, sound and sight. Sensation occurs when one or more of the various sense organs received a stimulus. By receiving the stimulus, it will cause a mental or physical response. It starts in the sensory receptor, which are specialized cells that convert the stimulus to an electric impulse which makes it ready for the brain to use this information and this is the passive process. After this process, the perception comes into play of the active process. Perception is the process that selects the information, organize it and interpret that information.
Motor behavior is a sub-discipline of kinesiology that focuses on the understanding of how humans control the way they move around and why they move in said manners. Motor behavior has three main sub-divisions: motor development, motor control, and motor learning. The focus of this paper will be the study of motor development as one ages. Motor development is an ever-changing characteristic process that occurs from birth all the way to death. Many researchers divide motor development into three sub-categories: the cognitive stage, associative stage, and the autonomous stage. Each stage occurs at a different point in one’s life and develops at different rates as well. This study explains the development and various age ranges in which
The results found were inconclusive. What was expected to be seen was growth in the student’s fine motor development from working in the maker space because the activities in the maker space were geared toward fine motor development. Some students worked in the maker space seven 7 of the 14 days of data collection. The other seven 7 days, no one worked in the maker space area. The first day of data collection, 12 students worked at the maker space table. As data collection went on, less students chose to work in the maker space area. No students chose to work in the maker space area for the last four days of data collection with the materials provided. The reoccurring students that worked in the maker space area for the seven 7 days observed had already scored at the highest level on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire in fine motor development. Therefore,
For my reflection paper I chose to write about chapter 9 that talks about lifespan development. This chapter grabbed my attention and I found it most interesting. In the textbookit discusses how there are certain factors that uncontrollably make us who we are. Those factorsare "unique combination of genes you inherited from your biological mother and father. Another is the historical era during which you grew up. Your individual development has also been shaped by the cultural, social, and family contexts within which you were raised." (Pg.352) The patterns of our lives are because of developmental psychology. "Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain growth, change and consistency though the lifespan. Developmental
Physical and motor development are two similar but different areas that describe child development. Physical development encompasses all of the various changes a child's body goes through. Those changes include height, weight, and brain development. Motor development is the development of control over the body. This control would involve developing reflexes such as blinking, large motor skills like walking, and fine motor skills like manipulating their fingers to pick up small objects like Cheerios. It is important to objectively study physical and motor development in children to gain knowledge on what characteristics are considered typical for each age and stage of development. This will enable me to be aware of when a child or children are developing at an irregular pace, and devise recommendations or find experiences and other resources that can aid in stimulating their development and to work towards closing achievement gaps. This particular assignment was to observe the selected child and reaffirm the importance of studying physical and motor development, and to develop ideas on how to involve it in my work as an early childhood professional.
Motor movement development has been a topic of controversy for the last century. The feud began in 1906 when Sir Charles Sherrington published The Integrative Action of the Nervous System. The work summarizes over two decades of research, revealing many fundamentals of neural science for the very first time (Burke, 2007). He was not only the first to suggest that the nervous system was a complex network of separate neurons, coining the term ‘synapse’, but he also was the first to discuss reflex arcs in detail. Although his work is noted for its advances in the field, some of Sherrington’s ideas were far-fetched; including his belief that complex behavior could be explained through the combination of individual reflex actions intertwined (Sherrington,
Six-year-old children can do everything that they have learned thus far, and then some. They also begin to be able to tie their shoes, write more words and numbers, gain more language skills due to rapid vocabulary development, and they also have longer attention spans as well. Their reading skills also change a lot and they continue to develop the ability and strategies to decode words, build fluency, read independently, and understand more and more about what they are reading. They enjoy sharing with their peers and the teacher what they are reading, along with writing stories and notes for friends and family. Their math skills also develop more as they explore counting
During this stage of development, children continue to develop gross motor skills but most of the development is with their fine motor skills. During this stage children are beginning to learn how to color, use scissors, write, and possibly tie their own shoes. Children will develop hand eye coordination as well as the ability to manipulate objects to accomplish what they want. My development was especially slow in this area. I did not begin to write legible words until I was five almost six years old. I still to this day, cannot cut a straight line and I could not color in the lines until I was about ten years old. I have always struggled with hand eye coordination and anything requiring the ability to manipulate a small object.
In the study of child development, nature and nurture are two essential concepts that immensely influence future abilities and characteristics of developing children. Nature refers to the genetically obtained characteristics and abilities that influence development while nurture refers to the surrounding environmental conditions that influence development. Without one or the other, a child may not develop some important skills, such as communication and walking. The roles of physiological and psychological needs in a person’s life are also crucial for developing children. Humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow, suggested that humans don’t only aim towards survival, but also aim towards self-actualization (Rathus, P. 94).