Slide 1

A Topical Approach to

LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT

Motor, Sensory, and

Perceptual Development
John W. Santrock
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Slide 2

Motor, Sensory, and Perceptual

Development
Motor Development
Sensory and Perceptual Development
Perceptual-Motor Coupling

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Slide 3

Motor Development

Dynamic Systems View

Seeks to explain how motor behaviors
are assembled for perceiving and acting
Motivation leads to new motor behavior;
a convergence of
Nervous system development
Bodys physical properties
Childs motivation to reach goal
Environmental support for the skill
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Slide 4

Motor Development

Dynamic Systems View

Seeks to explain how motor behaviors
are assembled for perceiving and acting
Motivation leads to new motor behavior;
a convergence of
Nervous system development
Bodys physical properties
Childs motivation to reach goal
Environmental support for the skill
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Slide 5

Motor Development

Reflexes
Built-in reactions to stimuli
Govern newborns movements
Genetically carried survival mechanisms
Allow adaptation to environment
Provides opportunity to learn
Some disappear (e.g.: grasping), some
last throughout life (e.g.: coughing)
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Slide 6

Motor Development

Reflexes
Sucking reflex

Automatic sucking object

placed in newborns mouth

Rooting reflex

Reaction when infants cheek is

stroked or side of mouth touched

Moro reflex

Startle response in reaction to

sudden, intense noise or movement

Grasping reflex

Occurs when something touches

infants palms; infant response
is to grasp tightly
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Slide 7

Motor Development

Gross Motor Skills

Motor skills that involve large-muscle
activities (milestones achieved)
Infancy
Development of posture
Locomotion and crawling
Learning to walk
Help of caregivers important; cultural
variation exists
More skilled and mobile in second year
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Slide 8

Motor Development

Milestones in Gross Motor Development

Fig. 5.3

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Slide 9

Motor Development

Gross Motor Skills

Childhood
Improved walking, running, jumping,
climbing, learn organized sports skills
Positive and negative sport outcomes
Movement smoother with age
Adolescence - Skills continue to improve
Adulthood
Peak performance of most sports before 30
Biological functions decline with age
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Slide 10

Motor Development

Guidelines for Parents and Coaches of

Children in Sports
The Dos

The Donts

make sports fun

mistakes are okay
Allow questions,
show calm manner
Respect childs
participation
Be positive role model
Be supportive

Yell or scream at child

Continue condemning
Point out errors in
front of others
Expect instant learning
Expect child to be pro
Make fun of child
Compare child to other
Make sports all work

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Motor Development

Slide 11

Movement
and Aging

Fig. 5.4

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Slide 12

Motor Development

Fine Motor Skills

Involves more finely tuned movements,
such as finger dexterity
Infancy: Reaching and grasping
Size and shape of object matters
Experience affects perceptions and vision
Early Childhood: Pick up small objects
Some difficulty building towers
Age 5: hand, arm, fingers move together

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Slide 13

Motor Development

Fine Motor Skills

Childhood and adolescence
Writing and drawing skills emerge, improve
Steadier at age 7; more precise movements
By 10-12, can do quality crafts, master difficult
piece on musical instrument
Adulthood speed may decline in middle and
late adulthood, but most use compensation
strategies
Older adults can still learn new motor tasks
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Slide 14

Motor Development

Handedness
Genetic inheritance proposed, unproven
Preference of using one hand over other
Right-handedness dominant in all cultures
Right hand preference in thumb-sucking
begins in the womb
Head-turning preference in newborns
Preference later leads to handedness

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Slide 15

Motor Development

Handedness, the Brain, and

Cognitive Abilities
95% of right-handed primarily process
speech in left hemisphere
Left handed
Are more likely to have reading problems
Show more variation
Have better spatial skills
More common among mathematicians,
musicians, artists, and architects
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Slide 16

Sensory and Perceptual Development

What Are Sensation and Perception?

Sensation occurs when information
contacts sensory receptors
Perception interpretation of sensation

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Slide 17

Sensory and Perceptual Development

The Ecological View

People directly perceive information in
the world around them
Perception brings people in contact with the
environment to interact with it and adapt to it
All objects have affordances; opportunities
for interaction offered by objects necessary
to perform activities

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Slide 18

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Studying Infant Perception

Visual preference method to determine if
infants can distinguish between various stimuli
Habituation and Dishabituation
Habituation decreased responsiveness to stimulus
Dishabituation recovery of habituated response

Tracking moving eyes and/or head to follow

moving objects
Videotape equipment, high-speed computers
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Slide 19

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Infants Visual Perception

Visual Acuity

20/600 at birth, near adult levels

by 1 year

Color

Sees some colors by 2 months,

has preferences by 4 months

Perceiving Patterns

Prefer patterns at birth; face

scanning improves by 2 months

Depth Perception
Visual
Expectations

Developed by 7-8 months

Begins by 4 months; all know
visual cliff by 6-to-12 months
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Slide 20

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy

Shape constancy

Recognition that
object remains
the same even
though the retinal
image changes

Recognition that
object remains the
same even though
its orientation
changes

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Slide 21

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Vision in Childhood
Improved color detection, visual expectations,
controlling eye movements (for reading)
Preschoolers may be farsighted
Signs of vision problems
Rubbing eyes, blinking, squinting
Irritability at games requiring distance vision
Closing one eye, tilting head to see, thrusting
head forward to see
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Slide 22

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Aging Vision In Adulthood

Loss of Accommodation presbyopia
Decreased blood supply to eye smaller
visual field, increased blind spot
Slower dark adaptation, decline in motion
sensitivity
Declining color vision: greens, blues, vi
Declining depth perception problems with
steps or curbs
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Sensory and Perceptual Development

Slide 23

Glare
Vision
and
Aging

Fig. 5.12

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Slide 24

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Diseases of the Eye

Cataracts thickening eye lens that causes
vision to become cloudy, opaque, distorted
Glaucoma damage to optic nerve because
of pressure created by buildup of fluid in eye
Macular degeneration involves
deterioration of retina

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Slide 25

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Hearing
Prenatal

Can hear before birth

Infancy

Improve sensitivity to soft sounds,

pitches Ability to localize

Childhood

Hearing usually fine

Danger of otitis media

Adolescence Most have excellent hearing

Danger from loud music
Adulthood

Few changes until middle adulthood

Hearing impairment increases with age
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Slide 26

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Hearing
Fetus hears in last 2 months of pregnancy
Newborns
cannot hear soft sounds well
display auditory preferences
sensitive to human speech

Infants less sensitive to sound pitch

Most childrens hearing is inadequate
otitis media: middle ear infection

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Slide 27

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Hearing
Adolescence
Most have excellent hearing; loud sounds
poses risks

Adulthood
Decline begins about age 40
Males lose sensitivity to high-pitched sounds
sooner than females
Gender differences may be due to occupation
Treatment includes hearing aids

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Slide 28

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Other Senses
Sense

Infants

Older Adults

Touch
and Pain

Newborns feel pain; by

6 mos., can coordinate
vision and touch

Less sensitive to
pain and touch in
lower extremities

Smell

Can differentiate odors

at birth; shows some
preferences

Loss of some
sense of smell
around age 60

Taste

May prefer sweet

tastes before birth;
likes salty at 4 months

Decline in taste
of begins in 60s

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Slide 29

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Intermodal Perception
Ability to relate and integrate
information about two or more
sensory modalities, such as
vision and hearing
Exists in newborns; sharpens
with experience in first year

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Slide 30

Sensory and Perceptual Development

Perceptual-Motor Coupling
Explores how people assemble motor
behaviors for perceiving and acting
Controversial for some researchers
Babies coordinate movements with
perceptual information to maintain
balance, reach for objects, etc.
Driving a car is coupling; declines in late
adulthood
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Slide 31

5
The End

2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights