Development and Assessment of Young Children

Developmental assessment of Young children 4 (1+3)

Lesson 3:Domains of Assessments

Gross Motor Skills

Development of gross motor skills at different stages of development are as follows

• Before birth/prenatal period: Prenatally the movement of the baby is one indicator of normal development.
• Neonatal period: After birth, the neonate continues to develop motor patterns that began in the intrauterine environment and to demonstrate maturation of reflex behaviours. The Braselton Neonatal assessment scale is one measure used to examine the behaviour and motor activity within the first month of life. This scale measures
  
• Variety of reflexes
• Amount and type of motor activity exhibited
• Tonicity of neonate/muscle tone (means degree of tension in the muscles of the body when they are at rest)
• Positioning
• Orientation and habituation to stimuli.
  
• Infancy: During this period motor skills begin to develop rapidly and dramatically. Infants gain head control and learn to roll, sit, cruise and walk independently. It is important not only to consider the age at which a child masters these skills but also to observe the developmental sequence skills acquisition. Assessment measures such as Psychomotor Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1993), Gross motor Scale of Peabody Developmental scales are used to determine the levels of developmental skill.