HDFS201 Chapter 5: Motor Development

What behaviors/ movements are precursors to walking?

1. Alternating kicking movements throughout the first six months of life 2. the stepping reflex

What is true about the development of fine motor skills in childhood and adolescence?

1. By age 12, a child's manipulative skills are similar to that of an adult. 2. Girls tend to have better fine motor skills than boys 3. By age 7, writing improves and the reversal of letters is less common

Order of motor development milestones beginning with the earliest motor skill according to the standard sequence of accomplishments.

1. Lying on the stomach and lifting the head 2. Rolling over 3. Supporting some weight with legs 4. Sitting without support 5. Standing with support 6. Standing alone easily

What are two types of perceptual constancy?

1. Shape constancy 2. Size constancy

What are the possible signs of vision problems in children?

1. Shutting or covering one eye 2. Tilting the head to look at something 3. Rubbing the eyes 4. Blinking and squinting excessively

What are the purposes of the sucking reflex?

1. The sucking reflex enables newborns to get nourishment before they associate a nipple with food. 2. The sucking reflex serves as a self-soothing or self-regulating mechanism.

What are the purposes of reflexes?

1. They are survival mechanisms, which are genetically carried. 2. They allow infants to respond adaptively to their environment.

Typically, individuals reach their peak physically between the ages of:

19 and 26

On the well-known Snellen chart that is used for eye examinations, a newborn's visual acuity is estimated to be:

20/240

Although it is not fully developed, babies can show size constancy as young as:

3 months of age

What is the earliest age at which infants are possibly capable of discriminating some colors?

4-8 weeks of age

What kind of study did Megan Gunnar and colleagues (1987) conduct that concluded newborns were capable of feeling pain?

A study of circumcised infant males

What is correct regarding the visual acuity of infants?

An infant's visual acuity by one year of age approximates that of an adult.

What is true about infant visual ability?

As early as 12 hours after birth, infants spend more time looking at their mother's face than at a stranger's face.

_______ is the visual ability observed in infants by about 3-4 months of age that provides us with some knowledge into whether an infant can experience depth perception

Binocular cues to depth

What becomes necessary in terms of environment once infants master the pincer grip?

Careful monitoring because they often put in their mouth everything they can pick up

Which theory of motor development suggest that perceptions are necessary for infants to fine-tune their movements and that motor skills represent solutions to the infants' goals?

Dynamic systems theory (perception and action/motor skill are coupled according to this theory)

What is TRUE regarding elementary school children and gross motor development?

Elementary school children become more fatigued by long periods of sitting than they do by running, jumping, or bicycling.

True or False: The main role of exercise in elementary school is the control of weight due to the high rates of childhood obesity.

FALSE (main role is the refinement of developing motor skills)

What is the evolutionary purpose of the Moro reflex?

It is believed to be a way of grabbing for support while falling.

Which gross motor skill is NOT typically mastered in the second year of life?

Jumping across distance

The __________ reflex occurs in response to a sudden, intense noise or movement.

Moro

The reflex that is demonstrated by newborns arching their backs, throwing back their heads, and flinging out their arms and legs, before rapidly closing their arms and legs, is called the:

Moro reflex

What is TRUE regarding fine motor skills in infancy?

Newborns already have many components of what will become finely coordinated finger movements.

What is the common understanding regarding infants and the sensation of touch?

Newborns are capable of feeling touch

In terms of the motor development milestones, what can we expect to be true?

Not all infants follow the standard sequence of motor accomplishments

What is the grasp called when infants grip with the whole hand?

Palmer

What ability must an infant have as a foundation for gross motor skill development?

Postural control

_______ behaviors are built-in reactions to stimuli that govern the newborn's movement in an involuntary and automatic way.

Reflex

Which is NOT considered a fine motor skill?

Riding a tricycle

What is one of the few restrictions that should be placed on a 2-year-old's gross motor activity?

Safety

Fourteen-month-old sophie began walking at the age of 11 months. She was categorized as an "experienced" walker in a recent research study. The babies in the study have to walk down a risky slope. From what we know about "experienced" walkers, what can we expect of Sophie's performance?

Sophie will pause and evaluate the slope before starting down it.

What is the recommendation most infant experts give regarding structured exercise classes for babies?

Structured exercise classes are not recommended

The ________ reflex enables newborns to get nourishment before they have associated a nipple with food. It also serves as a self-soothing or self-regulating mechanism.

Sucking

According to the dynamic systems theory, the action of infants feeding themselves with spoons requires maturation of the nervous system. What specific action of self spoon feeding is related to this maturation?

The control of the hand moving from the bowl to the mouth

What reflex does not disappear, but instead turns into a complex, voluntary action?

The grasping relfex

According to dynamic systems theory, what is NOT a critical factor in motor actions that an infant engages in?

The infant's temperament

What reflex demonstrates that infants can feel touch?

The rooting reflex

What is responsible for regulating balance and equilibrium?

The vestibular organs in the inner ear

What study specifically highlights that action can guide perception and perception can guide action?

The visual cliff designed by Eleanor and James Gibson

According to the dynamic systems theory, what is required before infants can begin to develop their motor skills and perform actions?

They must perceive something in the environment that motivates them to act.

True of False: Experience is necessary for color vision to develop normally

True

What is NOT a gross motor skill?

Tying shoes

_________ of the eye is the eye's ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina.

accommodation

According to dynamics systems theory, motor development is a(an) __________ (active/passive) process.

active

According to the dynamic systems view, universal milestones in motor skills (crawling, reaching, and walking) are a result of learning through the process of:

adaptation

According to the dynamics systems theory, infants meet the demands of a new task by assembling ________ patterns that are modifications of their current movement patterns

adaptive

Posture is a dynamic process that incorporates all of the following, EXCEPT:

awareness of others

________ training programs have shown some success in older adults

cognitive

The purpose of the rooting reflex is to:

direct the infant to turn its head toward something to suck

Skills that involve finely tuned movements that require finger dexterity are called:

fine motor skills

Depth perception usually declines in _________ adulthood.

late

Color vision in late adulthood may decline because of yellowing of the _______ of the eye

lens

Mothers in developing countries tend to stimulate their infants' __________ skills more than mothers in developed countries

motor

During middle and late childhood, increased _______ of the central nervous system contributes to improved motor skills.

myelination

Slower motor behavior in older adults may be due, in part, to ________ _________, an increase of irregular neural activity in the CNS

neural noise

As adults age, their vision changes, and _______ becomes more difficult because tolerance for glare diminishes

night driving

Infants at the age of 2 months develop the ability to perceive that ________ objects are whole

occluded

When infants grip with the whole hand, it is known as the _________ grasp

palmer

Sean is an infant who is capable of understanding that his mother is still his mother whether he sees her right in front of him, from across the room, or as she waves from the car window. This capability is called:

perceptual constancy

When sensory stimulation is changing (for instance, seeing the same object at different distances), but perception of the physical world remains the same, an infant is experiencing:

perceptual constancy

Coordinated grasping requires:

perceptual-motor coupling

When an infant grasps small objects with its thumb and forefinger, it is using the ________ grip

pincer

Carter is an infant who loves to eat raisins. He is able to pick the raisin up between his thumb and forefinger. What type of grasp is this called?

pincer grip

The loss of ability to focus on close objects is called ________.

presbyopia

Visual decline in older adults can often be traced to a reduction in the quality or intensity of light that reaches the _________.

retina

The _____ reflex occurs when the infant's cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched and the infant then turns its head toward the side that was touched

rooting

Caleb understands that his teddy bear has two arms and legs, even though he can't see the legs of the bear when he peeks over the edge of his crib and sees his bear on the floor. Caleb has:

shape constancy

The recognition that an object remains the same shape even though its orientation to us changes is called:

shape constancy

The realization that your mother has the same appearance and does not shrink as you watch her walk away from you (even though she appears to get smaller), means that you understand _______ constancy.

size

The recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object is a specific type of perceptual constancy known as _________ constancy

size

The changes in vision that occur in childhood, as opposed to infancy that is NOT true is:

the ability to use binocular cues to perceive depth

The current view of perceptual-motor coupling in infants is:

the dynamic systems view

The laboratory procedure constructed by Gibson and Walk (1960) to determine whether or not an infant could perceive depth is called:

the visual cliff

Babies as young as ________ months of age have shape constancy for objects that are not irregularly shaped.

three