chapter 1

1. chapter1 Fundamental Concepts

2. Characteristics of Motor Development • Change in movement behavior • Continuous • Age-related • Sequential • Underlying process(es)

3. Related Areas of Study • Motor learning: relatively permanent gains in motor skill capability associated with practice or experience • Motor control: the neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of movement (Schmidt & Lee, 1999)

4. Related Terms • Physical growth: quantitative increase in size or body mass (Timiras, 1972) • Physical maturation: qualitative advance in biological makeup • Cell, organ, or system advancement in biochemical composition (Teeple, 1978) • Aging: process occurring with the passage of time, leading to loss of adaptability or full function and eventually to death (Spirduso, 1995)

5. Constraints • Limit or discourage certain movements at the same time that they permit or encourage other movements • “Shape” movement

6. Newell’s Model of Constraints

7. Individual Constraints • Exist within the body • Structural constraints: related to the body’s structure • Height • Muscle mass • Functional constraints: related to behavioral function • Attention • Motivation

8. Environmental Constraints • Exist outside the body (properties of the world around us) • Global, not task specific • Physical • Gravity • Surfaces • Sociocultural • Gender roles

9. Task Constraints • External to the body • Related specifically to tasks or skills • Goal of task • Rules guiding task performance • Equipment

10. Research Study Designs Typical in Development • Longitudinal • An individual or a group is observed over time. • They can require lengthy observation time. • Cross-Sectional • Individuals or groups of different ages are observed for short period of time. • Change is inferred, not actually observed. • Sequential, or Mixed Longitudinal • Involves mini-longitudinal studies with overlapping ages.

11. Research Study Designs Typical in Development • Longitudinal • An individual or a group is observed over time. • They can require lengthy observation time. • Cross-Sectional • Individuals or groups of different ages are observed. • Change is inferred, not actually observed. • Sequential, or Mixed Longitudinal • Involves mini-longitudinal studies with overlapping ages.

12. A Model of Sequential Research Design

13. A Paradox in Development • Universality • Individuals in a species show great similarity in their development. • Variability • Individual differences exist.

14. chapter2 Theoretical Perspectives in Motor Development

15. Ecological Perspective • Basic tenet: interrelationship of individual, environment, and task drives development • Importance of multiple systems • Decisions of the higher brain centers are reduced because perception of the environment is direct and muscle can self-assemble into functional groups. • Two branches exist: • Dynamic systems • Perception–action

16. Dynamic Systems • Theory advocated in the early 1980s by Peter Kugler, Scott Kelso, and Michael Turvey, among others. • Body systems spontaneously self-organize. • Body systems, performer’s environment, and task demands interact. (continued)

17. Dynamic Systems (continued) • Some systems may develop more slowly than others in the young or degrade more rapidly in the old and thus control the rate of development or change. • Rate limiter – an individual constraint that “limits the rate” at which a motor skill is achieved • Qualitative and discontinuous change is characteristic of development. • Change occurs across the life span.

18. Dynamic Systems: Graphing Change Adapted from Thelen, Ulrich, & Jensen, 1989

19. Perception–Action • Theory based on the 1960s and 1970s writing of J.J. Gibson. • An affordance is the function an environmental object provides to an individual. • Characteristics define objects’ meanings. • Object functions are based on individuals’ intrinsic dimensions (body scaled) rather than extrinsic, objective dimensions.