The accomplishment of motor skills is a key part of human development and begins even before birth. The study of this development has been viewed from a number of perspectives incorporating health, medicine, psychology, education and even engineering by both researchers and practitioners from these disciplines. They have in general addressed two questions about motor development: first, what is the course and timing of these developments and how can they best be described? Second, how and why does this change take place and what are the mechanisms involved? Since the beginning of the twentieth century several classic studies have addressed these issues, with the last 20 years or so of research focusing more on trying to answer the second question.
This book addresses both of these questions by describing the process of change in motor development and how and why these changes might occur. It does this by examining development in typical children and contrasting that with an analysis of children who differ in their personal resources, whether those differences are physical, cognitive, social or sensory in nature. This part of the text not only provides insight into how children with a different set of resources develop but also guides us towards a more holistic understanding of development not restricted by typicality. The text also points us in the direction of looking at children in context, emphasizing that the developmental process does not reside solely in the child but is a complex and dynamic result of many interconnecting and often self-organizing constraints arising from both the child and the environment. David Sugden, Leeds, UK. Mike Wade, Minneapolis, USA. March 2013

FOREWORD viii

PREFACE x

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi

ABOUT THE AUTHORS xii

1.AN INTRODUCTION TO MOTOR DEVELOPMENT 1

2.BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE 15

3.DEVELOPMENTAL MODELS AND THEORIES 52

4.EARLY MOVEMENT DEVELOPMENT: BIRTH TO 24 MONTHS 73

5.MOTOR DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN: 2 TO 7 YEARS OF AGE 106

6.MOVEMENT DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN: 7 YEARS TO PUBERTY 147

7.CEREBRAL PALSY 183

8.DEVELOPMENTAL COORDINATION DISORDER 221

9.CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY 266

10.MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN WITH OTHER DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS 284

11.CHILDREN WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT 313

12.ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION FOR CHILDREN WITH MOVEMENT DIFFICULTIES 336

13.PERSPECTIVES ON TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL DEVELOPMENT 369

INDEX 373

中国医科院医学信息研究所