EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT & EDUCATION 3(2+1)

Lesson 02: Motor Development during Early Childhood Period

Principles of motor development

While planning education programmes for young children, the following four major principles of motor development must be kept in mind.

1. Motor development depends upon neural maturity and muscular readiness. The development of different forms of motor activity goes on along with the development of different areas of the nervous system.
2. A child should be mature enough to learn any skill. Sometimes a child may appear to learn a skill at an early age, but the gain may only be temporary.
3. Motor development follows a standard pattern. It shows four general trends or directions:
1. Cephalocaudal Sequence: Growth starts first in the head region and then moves downwards towards the feet.
2. Proximodistal Sequence: Growth progresses from 'central to peripheral' i.e. from' the trunk region to arms and then to fingers and similarly from legs to toes.
3. Differentiation: In this the growth proceeds from ‘mass to specific’ activities, i.e, when a child practices more and more, he moves towards specific or refined responses in which only the appropriate limbs and muscles are involved. For example, at first a child catches a ball with his fore arms and shoulders later he learns to catch it only with his hands and fingers.
4. Integration: Here, the child starts integrating smaller activities into larger more functional behaviours after gradual refinement of movement.
4. The rate of motor development varies in children. Even though motor development does follow a generally predictable pattern, individual differences do occur. The sequence remains the same for all children, but the specific age at which they reach the different stages differ.