Physical, Motor & Perceptual

Development
 Lesson Outline
• The brain and the nervous system
• Synaptic development
• Lateralization
• Our sensory system
• Perceptual development
• Motor skills
The Brain and the Nervous
System
The Brain and Nervous System
Midbrain and
System develops
medulla are most
rapidly during first
fully developed at
2 years
birth

The cerebral cortex

is least developed
• The midbrain and the medulla are in the lower
part of the brain
• They are connected to the spinal cord
• They regulate vital functions like heart beat
and respiration
• They also regulate attention, sleeping and
walking
• Gray matter that wraps around the mid-brain
• Regulates perception
• Regulates body movement
• Influences thinking
• Influences language
 The Brain and Nervous System

Growth Spurts: Developmental Timeline

Middle
childhood 17-year olds
spurts have growth
13–15 year
associated 10–12 year in frontal
One month Spurts at 8, olds have
with olds have lobes that
intervals until 12, and 20 growth in
improved growth in are
5 months months spatial and
eye-hand frontal lobes associated
motor areas
coordination with logic
and fine and planning
motor skills
What really happens inside a bab
y’s brain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
VNNsN9IJkws

google images
Synaptic Development
 Synaptic Development

Synaptogenesis Pruning
• Creation of synapses • Unnecessary pathways
between neurons and connections are
• Rapid occurrence eliminated
during first years after • Huge implications for
birth human development
• Brain weight triples by and early childhood
age 2 development
• Happens in spurts
 Synaptic Development
Both processes heavily dependent on
experiences
• Follows “use it or lose it” dictum
– Example: language development
• Early flexibility allows children to adapt to
environment better
– Child recover better from severe trauma to brain
• Programmed plasticity is in its height in infancy
Lateralization
 Lateralization
Spatial Perception: Ability to identify and act on
relationships of objects in space
(more later)
Spatial cognition: ability to infer rules from and
make predictions about the movements of
objects in space
 A Few More Videos
• Serve and return interactions
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_5u8-QSh6A

• Toxic stress
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVwFkcOZHJw
 Some Awesome Websites
• http://www.zerotothree.org/child-developme
nt/brain-development/baby-brain-map.html

• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/
Can Anything Actually, Physically
Hurt The Brain?

google images
• Trauma
– Accidents
– Near-drowning incidents
• Child abuse
– Much more later
• Child neglect
– Here is the shocking and
very sad truth!
Shaken Baby Syndrome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgHRWH4USmw
Physical Development
 Physical Growth in Infancy
Rapid advances
• Although the greatest
increase in height
and weight occurs
during the first year
of life, children
continue to grow
throughout infancy
and toddlerhood.
 Our Sensory System
(in nerves, spinal cord, and brain)
And sensory integration
• Sensory integration is our brain’s ability to
process and understand information that we
are getting through our senses
• It is also our brain’s ability to integrate all
information we are receiving through our
senses into a coherent whole
• It is also our brain’s ability to ignore irrelevant
information
Sensory Skills
Seeing…
 Visual Acuity
• Typical visual acuity is 20/20
• Visual acuity of 20/100: person would see at
20 feet what others can see at 100 feet
• At birth, newborns’ visual acuity is 2/200 to
20/400
• Most babies reach 20/20 vision by 6-9 months
of age
• Some will reach it by 12 months of age
 Tracking Objects In The Visual Field

• Think about this:

– What does a baby need in order to put a spoon in
her mouth?
• She will need to hold the spoon, move it towards her
mouth and keep an eye on the spoon as she moves her
hand towards her mouth. This is tracking!
Infants’ Tracking Skills
 Color Vision
• Babies can see colors. Their visual acuity is
poor, but they can see colors
• We know that because of:
– Tracking
– Habituation
Hearing…
 Auditory Acuity
• Babies can hear, while still in the womb
• Sense of hearing is well developed at birth,
but continues to improve until adolescence
• Newborns hear all sounds as well as adults
– The only exception is the high-pitched sound
 Detecting Locations
• Hearing also involves determining where a
sound is coming from
• Because the ears are separated by the head,
sound reaches one ear earlier than the other,
and this allows the individual to judge where
the sound is coming from
• Newborns can judge the general direction from
which a sound is coming, because they turn
their heads towards that direction
• Newborns cannot tell the specific location
from which an object is coming

• This skill takes time to develop and it almost

completely developed by 18 months of age
 A Word The Ability To Discriminate
Among Different Sounds In A Language

Watch This!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew5-
xbc1HMk
 Listening:
Make fine discriminations among individual sounds

Up to 6 months,
babies can
discriminate all
1-month-old can By 2–3 months,
sound contrasts This ability
differentiate infants respond to
that appear in any disappears by 12
between “pa” and any male, female,
language, including months
“ba” or child’s voice
languages that
they do not hear
spoken to them
Smelling & Tasting
• These two senses are intricately linked
– When you can’t smell (e.g. because of a stuffed
nose), your sense of taste is impacted and you are
able to really taste what you are eating
• They are quite well developed at birth
• Newborns are able to discriminate between
the smell of their own amniotic fluid, and the
smell of the amniotic fluid of other babies
• One week old babies can tell the difference
between the smell of their mothers’ body,
and the smell of another woman’s body
• Babies who are breastfed are able to tell the
difference between the smell of their own
mother’s breast milk, and the smell of
another woman’s breast milk
• Newborns’ sense of taste is well developed at
birth, as they respond differently to the four
basic taste groups
– Sweet (milk chocolate)
– Sour (lemon)
– Bitter (tea, coffee, dark chocolate)
– Salty
Newborns’ Response to Tastes
Perceptual Skills
 Depth Perception
• Baby: Determining if a toy is close enough for
me to reach

• Grown-up: Determining if I have time to make

a left turn, before a car coming from the
opposite direction reaches me
When Does Depth Perception
Develop In Babies?

google images
• The Visual Cliff experiment

• Each motor milestone seem to require the

development of brand new skills

2705-3250
What do babies look at?

2:00-3:48
 2 months 2-3 months
• First focus on • Shift to what
where objects an object is
are in the • Larger degree
world of detail
• Scan light/dark noticeable
contrasts to • Pay attention
search for the to patterns
edge of objects
• Look at motion
 Human Faces
• Infants prefer attractive faces
– What do you think about this?

• Mother’s face preferred from birth

• Recognition of mother’s face turns infant

attention to the face
 But Sometimes We Have To Ignore Perceptual
Information
• This Ability Is Not Innate: It Develops With Age
& Experience!!!
• Babies start to develop these skills in the first
few months of life (2-3 months)
• These abilities will continue to be refined,
throughout the early childhood years
 Perceptual Constancies
• Set of rules a child must learn to perceive
shape, size, and color as a constant even when
perceptual conditions change
• Size constancy: realizing a person does not get
smaller just because they are farther away
• Shape constancy: shape is the same even
when looking at something from many
different angles
• Color constancy: changes in light and shadow
do not change colors
 Size Constancy
• Someone does not get smaller just because
they are moving away from you
– Baby: the people you are looking at from your
balcony are so tiny!!!
• A tunnel is not getting bigger just because you
are getting closer to it, in the car
– Baby: how will we get into that tiny little hole in
the wall?
 Shape Constancy
• The shape is the same, even though it looks
different from different angles
• Spatial orientation does not matter, when
looking at objects…
• And adults Suck!!! They Say Something & Then
A Few Years Later, They Say The Exact
Opposite
 Color Constancy
• Changes in light and shadow do not change
the color itself
Size, Shape & Color Constancy lead to the
development of
Object Constancy

Objects remain the same even when

sensory information about them
changes
Our Proprioceptive System

Awareness of the body and its

different parts, gained through
muscles and joints
• How one’s body orients in space
• Knowing if one is lying or sitting
• How much power to exert on something
– Petting the pet
• The rate and timing of movement
• Changing one’s body position
• Knowing when to step off the escalator
What happens when the proprio
ceptive system does not function
or develop properly?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2iOliN3fAE
Our Vestibular System

Responds to changes in head

position and helps us keep our
balance
• Sense of balance
• Going up and down the stairs
• Stepping off a curb
What happens when it does not func
tion or develop the way it should?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=pEbILhUc1Pc
Motor Development

google images
 General Considerations
• Cephalo-Caudal Pattern: development
proceeds from head to toe;
• Proximo-Distal Pattern: development
proceeds from the spine to the outer
extremities;
• Gross Motor to Fine Motor Pattern: gross
motor skills develop first;
• Maximum to Minimum Muscle Involvement
Pattern
• Orderly development pattern;
• Mass to Specific Pattern: body movement of
young infants is undifferentiated, and it
involves the entire body;
• Bilateral to Unilateral Pattern:
undifferentiated use of both sides of body to
unilateral preference
The Development Of
Gross Motor Skills

goole images
Trunk, Pelvis (Hips), Knee, Foot (ankle)
(Proximal to Distal)
• Neck
• Torso
• Arms
• Legs
• Balance and the
vestibular system
• The proprioceptive
system
 Needed For…
• Head control • Kicking a ball
• Sitting • Catching a ball
• Crawling • Throwing a ball
• Walking • Climbing structures
• Running • Riding tricycles and
• Going up and down the bicycles
stairs
Some Gross Motor Milestones

google images
 Infants
• 5-6 months: rolls
• 6-7 months: sits along
• 8-10 months: crawls
• 10-11 months: cruises around furniture
• 11-12: pulls to a stand (may take a few independent
steps)
• 12 months: walks
• 15 months: walks well
• Runs but may fall
 Two Year-Olds
• Walks well
• Runs but not very well
• Walks backwards
• Walks on tiptoe
• Jumps with both feet
• Goes up the stairs
• Kicks balls
• Catches a rolled ball
 Three Year-Olds
• Runs fast, avoids obstacles
• Balances on one foot (may fall)
• Catches large ball
• Throws ball with accuracy
 Four Year-Olds
• Runs and jumps well
• May hop on one foot
• May skip
• Rides a bicycle
 Five Year-Olds
• Uses jump rope
• Kicks a moving ball
• May skate
• Motor development seems to be the result of
both nature and nurture:
Motor Development in Middle Childhood

• Gains in basic gross-motor capacities:

– Flexibility
– Balance
– Agility
– Force
• Advances in fine-motor skills:
– Writing
– Drawing
Changes in Gross-Motor Skills During Middle
Childhood
• Running: increased speed
• Other gait variations: skipping, sideways stepping
• Vertical jump and standing broad jump: performance improvements
• Precision jumping and hopping
• Throwing and catching: improved ability over greater distances
• Kicking: improved speed and accuracy
• Batting: more effective batting motions
• Dribbling: improvements in style
The Development Of Fine
Motor Skills

google images
Trunk-Shoulder-Elbow-Wrist-Hand
(Proximal to Distal)
 Progression Of Skill Acquisition
• Reach
• Grasp
• Carry
• Hold in hand
• Release
 Includes…
• Using muscles of the
hand and fingers;

• Handedness;

• Eye hand coordination;

• Tripod position
• Whole palm grasp

• Refined finger pinch

 Needed For…
• Writing
• Painting
• Drawing
• Lacing
• Threading (beads)
• Playing with…pretty
much everything
• Eating
• Using utensils
• Buttoning & unbuttoning buttons
• Fastening & unfastening snaps
• Zipping & unzipping zippers
• Brushing teeth
• Grooming
Some Fine Motor Milestones

google images
• 12-18 months: scribbles spontaneously and
may imitate basic scribbles
• Entire arm moves as a unit
• Usually displays “fisted” grasp
• 2-3 years: copies basic strokes (⃝ ― ḷ)
• Hand and forearm move as unit
• Crayon is usually stabilized in palm
• Has “digital” grasp
• 3-4 years: can copy cross and trace diamond
• Hand movement starts from wrist, and
movement is separate from form arm
• Starts to use tripod position
• 4-6 years: copies
• Finger movement is now separate from wrist
and hand movement
• Child now has full tripod grasp
 Fine-Motor Development in Middle
Childhood
Writing:
• Mastery of uppercase letters, then lowercase
• Increased legibility
Drawing:
• Dramatic gains in organization, detail, representation of depth
• Ability to copy two-dimensional shapes
• Ability to relate objects to one another as part of an organized
whole
What Are The Red Flags For
Gross Motor Development?
Any Loss Of Any Previously
Acquired Skill
 Asymmetry
(could indicate hemi-plegia)
• Toe walking (could
indicate neurological
damage or shorter
than usual achilles
tendons)
• In-toeing: could mean
poor hip joint
development or poor
alignment
• Early left/right use
– Handedness is usually
established between 2.5
and 3 years of age
– Early handedness could
indicate neurological
problems
Hypertonia (high tone)

google images
Hypotonia (low tone)