Motor development

Question 1

Is crawling a motor milestone?

Answer 1

NO, Many healthy babies never crawl and skip right to walking

Question 2

How can we explain huge cross-cultural differences in how long 5-month-olds can sit independently?

Answer 2

Related to where infants’ are placed to sit

Question 3

Other examples of rosscultural differences in crawling/walking

Answer 3

• how many opportunities infants
  have to practice and how much motor development is actively
  encouraged
• diapers vs no diapers

Question 4

how do current theories explain individual differences in motor
development

Answer 4

motor development governed by complex
interplay between numerous factors:
* Neural development
* Increases in physical strength
* Physical abilities, like posture control and balance
* Perceptual skills
* Change in body proportions and weight
* Motivation

Question 5

Why does stepping reflex disappear between 2 months old and 7-12 months

Answer 5

Weight changes: Infants gain weight faster than they build leg
muscles and thus have insufficient strength to lift heavier
legs.
evidence: if you put them in a water tank they’ll continue with the stepping reflexes

Question 6

Why does motor development matter?

Answer 6

Enables active learning and expands an infant’s world (have more control over what they do) + * Facilitates development of skills in other domains (like vision and social behaviour)

Question 7

Until what age are scale errors (attempt to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the huge difference in size between the
child and the object) present?

Answer 7

until 2 years - due to failure to integrate visual information with action planning

Question 8

Results of showing a video of a person placing objects into a bucket (Eye-tracking)

Answer 8

• Adults and 12 month olds showed proactive gaze towards bucket
• 6-month olds did not - Have not yet developed the ability to pick up, carry, and drop objects

Shows that infants ability to predict others’ actions relies on them being
able to perform these same actions

Question 9

Most reflexes disappear by _ months

Answer 9

2

Question 10

Babies begin crawling at what age

Answer 10

7-8 months old

Question 11

Around what age children able to sit independently and to reach

Answer 11

7 months

-influences the dev of 3D object perception