The development of motor skills in the first two years of life are dramatic, and then become more subtle with time. Chapter 4 describes these changes, and explains how these changes take place. Analysis is done via neuro-maturational theories, information processing, and cognitive terms as well as more recent ecological and dynamical systems viewpoints. The bidirectional influence of other faculties like embodied cognition and movement show that motor development does not occur in isolation. Movement skills are essential to daily life and influence our social, emotional, and cognitive being. This process of evolution and refinement is a complex, dynamic, self-organizing system. Theoretical explanations of motor development involve the transaction of children’s resources, the environmental context, and the task at hand. Not all children develop typically, although the influencing parameters are the same for all; rather, it is the metrics within the parameters that differ.
Infant Motor Development and Physical Activity and Sedentary Time at Midlife
