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Samenvatting Hoorcolleges DLB - Tentamen B
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Lecture notes of 47 pages for the course Development, learning and behavior at UU
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Deel B (Engels)DLB – Hoorcollege VII
Motor Development
What is motor development?
- Clark & Whitall → changes in motor behaviour over time ánd the processes underlying it
(theories etc.)
- Sugden & Wade → adaptive change towards competence, so there is a goal to reach for
the enfant
↳ ecologoical perception-action theory → it assumes that motor development is
influenced by the factors within the child and factors of the environment
For example: a child needs to learn how to walk → not only so it can walk but also so it
can explore its environment
The stepping reflex
Why does the stepping reflex disappear after 2 months of age?
neuromaturational theory → the disappearance of the reflex can be explained by the cortical
inhibition
cortical inhibition= a neurophysiological process in inhibitory interneurons selectively
attenuate the activity of other neurons in the cortex → dus een proces waarbij remmende
interneuronen selectief de activiteit van andere neuronen verzwakken
↳ early reflexes of newborn children are controlled by subcortical structures → due to the
maturation (=rijping) of the cortical structures these subcortical structures are inhibited → the
reflex disappears
Thelen doubted this explanation → she set up two experiments with environmental
manipulations
- Experiment 1). Putting little ankle weights on the ankles of those who still showed the
stepping reflex → the reflex disappeared
- Experiment 2). Butting those who did not show the stepping reflex anymore in a water
basin → the reflex reappeared when the foot touched the bottom of the pool
↳ these finding cannot be explained by the cortical inhibition hypothesis → Thelens explanation:
rapid weight gain due to breastfeeding makes the legs too heavy for the muscles that lift the legs
in stepping → reflex disappears
↳ when in the water, the water makes the weight of the legs lighter → reflex appears again
Neuromaturational theory (Gesell Dome)
Gesell Dome → in the Gesell Dome children could be observed/examined without being
disturbed
1
,Gesell assumed that all children go through the same stage of the development in the same
sequence (=volgorde) → but the rate of development variates from child to child
↳ Gesell believed that individual differences in grow rates are a result of internal genetic
meganisms
Presumptions (=veronderstellingen) of the neuromaturation theory;
1. development is predetermined → behavioural changes reflect 1 to 1 the maturation of the
center nervous system (=rijping van het centrale zenuwstelsel)
2. fixed sequential order of motor milestones → despite the difference of the environmental
backgrounds of the children, they all show the same universal invariant milestone development
3. developmental progresses go from proximal to distal and from cephaal (head) to the caudal
(toes)
4. functional asymmetery emerges due to cerebral lateralization (cerebrale lateralisatie=
bewegingen aan de linkerkant van je lichaam worden gereguleerd door je rechter hersenhelft, en
andersom)
Falsifying neuromaturation 1 – Cepahlo-caudal trend
Does motoral development progress from the to the feet? → questioned by Galloway and Thelen
→ put this question to the test
↳ it is true that children are better skilled at reaching for objects with their hands rather than
with their feet → but isn’t this an effect of parents offering objects way more to children’s hands
rather than children’s feet?
↳ what would happen if we train children to reach with their feet instead of with their hands? →
after a 6 week training: reaching with their feet is similar or even better skilled compared to
reaching with the hand
Falsifying neuromaturation 2 – inter-individual variability
2
,Within the motor milestones there is a large overlap in achieving the different milestones →
there is also a large inter-individual variability in achieving certain milestones
↳ There are a lot of factors that are playing a role in this last variability
Falsifying neuromaturation 3 – fixed sequential order
Behavioural landscape → confirms that different motor milestones overlap and that there is a
large variability in the differened prefered motor milestones/motor movements, and the use of
these motor movements
We can also identify a transition in motor milestones → they replace a movement for another
movement, for example replacing crawling for walking
↳ this transition is combined with a lot of instability: in the beginning they will struggle a lot
with walking so they will still prefer crawling over walking
Dynamic systems theory
Changes in motor behaviour are the result of the dynamic interaction between different
subsystems of the body of the child, task specific factors and te environment
The subsystems within the child develop parallel by their own developmental trajectories
(=trajecten)
Changes within one of the subsystems may lead to a transition in motor behaviour and motor
development → heterarchical system= een hiërarchisch systeem waarin er in de verhoudingen
onderscheid wordt gemaakt tussen hoger en lage
The subsystems within the child may evolve:
- central nervous system
- muscular strength
- physical growth
- cognition, executive function, memory
3
,- attention
- motivation
Etc.
The underlying process to explain transition is self-organization → a typical featur of complex
biological systems
↳ the idea is that stable motor behaviour and transitions in motor behaviour emerge due to the
complex interaction of the different subsystems without control from a central organ
The dynamic systems theory also says that transitions are non-lineair in nature
- Order-parameter= reflects the order of the movement pattern
↳ for example: crawling → walking
- Control parameters (the speed of movements)= a relatively small changes in the control
parameter may lead to transitions from stable pattern A to another or new stable pattern
B
↳ for example:
Development of reaching visual perception and visual-motor coordination
Before infants can reach for an object it is required that particular developments have been
finalized, for example:
- Visual acuity (=scherpte) → by 3 months
- Figure-background discrimination → by 4 months
- Depth perception → by 4 months
- Visual-motor coordination → by 6 months
↳ Once a child has better fine motor skills it will be able to reach and graps for objects such as
toys
Visual perception is important for locomotor (=motorische) development, but it is even more
crucial for succesfull goal-directed reaching → requires that visual perceptual information
becomes intergrated with the motor factor system
↳ Percise eye-hand coordination is needed for succesfull goal-directed reaching
Development of reaching
As children gain the ability to sit indepently the reaching becomes more stable → also head
control precedes (=gaat vooraf aan) succesful reaching
Postural control and exploration
Eventough children can reach and grasp for objects when their in the lying position, postural
control in the sitting position gives more opportunities for the exploration of objects →
multimodal object exploration
↳ multimodal object exploration= looking at an object while simultaneously manipulating it
Perception-action theory – perceptual learning
Perceptual learning= differentiate one object from another and identify the invariant
(=onveranderbare) properties of that object
4
, ↳ for example: what makes a stool different from a table?
- Increasing specificity in perceptual abilities
- Optimalisation of the focus of attention
- More efficiently noticing information of invariant properties of objects
An important part of the perceptual learning is the discovery of affordances → perceived action
possibilities (=waargenomen actiemogelijkeden) offered by objects/situations/persons etc.
↳ For example: for adults a chair is something to sit on, for children it can be a tool to reach
something they can’t reach like the kitchen counter
Children and adults are using body scaled information to perceive rather a particular movement
can be performed
↳ direct perception= visual information of the environment is meaningful for action → we
directly perceive the actions the environment offers us or forces us to do
We don’t need a representation of an affordance in our brain → this ecological approach of
perception is alternative to the cognitive approach which says that meaning is given by what we
perceive indirectly by the brain → so the cognitive approach says that we do need a
representation
The visual cliff
Can young infants already perceive depth?
6-to 14 month old infants do not cross the deep side of the cliff, even though the mother were
encouraging their children to cross over the cliff → so infants are able to see depth
↳ other behaviours such as looking and grasping are developed earlier → could have helped
with the development of visual depth perception
Discovering affordances
Children use searching strategies to explore if situations enforce them to do something or not →
when trying, children use experiences of earlier attempts
perception-action cycle= repeatedly trying out actions
based on visual information from the environment
In more difficult situations the child probably needs
multiple attempts to discover what is the best solution →
they learn about the lawful relations between perception and action (taking body-scaled
information into account)
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