Importance of variability in the acquisition of motor’s abilities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34024/rnc.2005.v13.8826Keywords:
Child Development, Motor Activity, Genetics Variation, EnvironmentAbstract
This study, accomplished from revision of the literature, was aimed at describing the theories that base the normal motor development and to show the importance of motor variability. Researchers from different theoretical approaches agree that the variability is a fundamental aspect of motor development. However, they diverge as for the explanation of variability origin. Researchers of Maturational Theory affirm that variability originates at birth and reflects the development of normal nervous system. On the other hand, the Dynamic Systems Theory relates the motor variability to environmental influences. Starting from the combination between the Maturational and of Dynamic Systems perspective is admitted that the normal motor development is characterized by two variability phases. The primary variability is determined for genetic information and the secondary variability is generated to adapt the motor performance to specific situations. Being like this, initially the movements are highly variable and to follow the movement patterns with larger adaptative value are selected. In that sense, the variability has been related with different results, depending on the stages of motor development. In the first months of life, the low movements’ variability can point to motor disabilities, while in later phase it would represent a stabilized behavior.
Metrics
References
Vayer P, Roicin C. Psicologia atual e desenvolvimento da criança. São Paulo: Manole, 1990: 9-71.
Lockman JJ, Thelen E. Developmental biodynamics: brain, body, behavior connections. Child Dev 1993; 64: 953-59.
Thelen E, Kelso JAS, Fogel JAS. Self-organizing systems and infant motor Development. Dev Review 1987; 7: 39-65.
Le Boulch JO. Indicações educativas do nascimento até 3 anos. In: Le Boulch JO. Desenvolvimento psicomotor do nascimento até 6 anos: a psicocinética na idade pré-escolar. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas, 1984: 72-81.
Shepherd RB. Desenvolvimento da motricidade e da habilidade motora. In: Shepherd RB. Fisioterapia em pediatria. 3. ed. São Paulo: Santos, 1998: 9-42.
Piper MC, Darrah JM. Motor assessment of the developing infant. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1994.
Cioni G, Prechtl HF, Ferrari F, Paolicelli PB, Einspieler C, Roversi MF. Which better predicts later outcome in fullterm infants: quality of general movements or neurological examination? Early Hum Dev 1997; 50: 71-85.
Case-Smith J. Analysis of current motor development theory and recently published infant motor assessment. Infants and Young Children 1996; 9: 29-41.
Touwen B. Variability and stereotypy in normal and deviant development. Clin Dev Med 1978; 67: 99-110.
Darrah J, Hodge M, Magill-Evans J, Kembhavi G. Stability of serial assessment of motor and comunication abilities in typically developing infants - implications for screening. Early Hum Dev 2003; 72: 97-110.
Woollacott MH, Shumway-Cook A. Changes in posture control across the life span: a systems approach. Phys Ther 1990; 70:799-806.
Newton RA. Controle motor. In: Umphred AD. Fisioterapia Neurológica. 2.ed. São Paulo: Manole, 1994: 876.
Hadders-Algra M. Variability in infant motor behavior: a hallmark of the healthy nervous system. Infant Behav Dev 2002; 25: 433-51.
Van Der Fits IBM, Klip AWJ, Van Eykern LA, Hadders-Algra M. The development of postural adjustments during reaching in 6 to 18 months old infants. Exp Brain Res 1999; 126: 517-28.
Lamb T, Yang JF. Could different directions of infant stepping be controlled by the same locomotor central pattern generator? J Neurophysiol 2000; 83: 2814-24.
Kamm K, Thelen E, Jensen J. A dynamical system approach to motor development. Phys Ther 1990; 70: 763-75.
Zelazo PR. The development of walking: new finding and old assumptions. J Motor Behav 1983; 15: 99-137.
Lipsitt LP. Learning in infancy: cognitive development in babies. J Pediatr 1986; 109: 172-82.
Abitbol MM. Quadrupedalism and the acquisition of bipedalism in human children. Gait Post 1993; 1: 189-95.
Galloway JC, Thelen E. Feet first: object exploration in young infants. Infant Behav Dev 2004; 27: 107-12.
Angulo-Kinzler RM. Exploration and selection of intralimb coordination patterns in three-month-old infants. J Motor Behav 2001;33: 363-76.
Shumway-Cook A, Woollacott MH. The growth of stability: postural control from a developmental perspective. J Motor Behav 1985; 17: 131-47.
Thelen E. Motor development: a new synthesis. Am Psychol 1995; 50: 79-95.
Rocha NACF, Tudella E. A influência da postura sobre o estado comportamental e a coordenação mão-boca do bebê. Rev Bras Fisio 2002; 6: 1-7.
Hopinks B, Ronnqvist L. Facilitating postural control: effects on the reaching behavior of 6-month-old infants. Develop Psychobiol 2002; 40: 168-82.
Morris M, Summers JJ, Matyas TA, Iansek R. Current status of the motor program. Phys Ther 1994; 74: 738-48.
Rochat P. Object manipulation and exploration in 2 to 5 month-old infants. Dev Psychol 1989; 25: 871-84.
Smith LB, Thelen E. Development as a dynamic system. Trends Cognitive Sciences 2003; 7: 343-48.
Barela JA. Perspectiva dos sistemas dinâmicos: teoria e aplicação no estudo de desenvolvimento motor. In: Pellegrini JAM. Coletânea de Estudos: comportamento motor. São Paulo: Movimento, 1997: 11-28.
Darrah J, Redfern L, Maguire TO, Beaulne AP, Watt J. Intraindividual stability of rate of gross motor development in full-term infants. Early Human Dev 1998; 52: 169-79.
Flehming I. Evolução normal da motricidade e suas variações. In: Flehming I. Desenvolvimento normal e seus desvios no lactente: diagnóstico e tratamento precoce do nascimento até o 18º mês. 2ªed. São Paulo: Atheneu, 2002. 9-12.
Barros KMFT, Fragoso AGC, Oliveira ALB, Cabral Filho JE, Castro RM. Do environmental influences alter motor abilities acquisition? A comparison among children from day-care centers and private schools. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2003; 61 (2A): 170-75.
Santos DCC, Gabbard C, Gonçalves VMG. Motor development during the first year: a comparative study. J Genet Psychol 2001; 162: 143-53.
Lopes VB. Desenvolvimento motor de bebês segundo a “Alberta Infant Motor Scale”. 2003. 176 f. Dissertação de Mestrado - Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos.
Rocha NACF, Tudella E. Teorias que embasam a aquisição das habilidades motoras do bebê. Temas sobre Desenvolvimento 2003; 11 (66): 5-11.
Rochat P. Self-perception and action in infancy. Exp Brain Res 1998; 123: 102-9.
Thelen E, Skala KD, Kelso JAS. The dynamic nature of early coordination: evidence from bilateral leg movements in young infants. Dev Psychol 1987; 23: 179-86.
Hadders-Algra M, Van Eykern LA, Klip van den Nieuwendijk AWJ, Prechtl HFR. Developmental course of general movements in early infancy. II. EMG correlates. Early Human Dev 1992; 28: 231-52.
Einspieler C, Prechtl HFR. Prechtl´s assessment of general movements: a diagnostic tool for the functional assessment of the young nervous system. Mental Retard Dev Disabil Res Reviews 2005; 11: 61-7.
Hadders-A,lgra M, Mavinkurve-Groothuis AM, Groen SE, Stremmelaar EF, Martijn A, Butcher PR. Quality of general movements and the development of minor neurological dysfunstion at toddler and school age. Clin Rehabil 2004; 18: 287-99.
Hadders-Algra M. Evaluation of motor function in young infants by means of the assessment of general movements: a review. Pediatric Phys Ther 2001; 13: 27-36.
Prechtl HFR. General movement assessment as a method of developmental neurology: new paradigms and their consequences. Dev Med Child Neurol 2001; 43: 836-42.
Hadders-Algra M, Brogren E, Forssberg H. Ontogeny of postural adjustments during sitting in infancy: variation, selection and modulation. J Physiol 1996; 493: 273-88.
Thelen E, Cobertta D, Kamm K, Spencer JP, Schneider K, Zernicke RF. The transition to reaching: mapping intention and intrinsic dynamics. Child Dev 1993; 64: 1058-98.
Adolph KE, Vereijken B, Denny MA. Learning to crawl. Child Dev 1998; 69: 1299-1312.
Forssberg H. Ontogeny of human locomotor control. I. Infant stepping supported locomotion and transition to independent locomotion. Exp Brain Res 1985; 57: 480-93.
Prechtl HFR. Qualitative changes of spontaneous movements in fetus and preterm infant are a maker of neurological dysfunction. Early Hum Dev 1990; 23: 151-8.
Haehl V, Vardaxis V, Ulrich B. Learning to cruise: Bernstein’s theory applied to skill acquisition during infancy. Hum Mov Sci 2000; 19: 685-715.
D´Elia A, Pighetti M, Moccia G, Santangelo N. Spontaneous motor activity in normal fetuses. Early Hum Dev 2001; 65: 139-147.
Prechtl HFR. Principles of early motor development in the human the human. In: Kalverboer AF, Hopkins B, Geuze R. Motor development in early and later childhood: longitudinal approaches Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993: 35-50.
Hedberg A, Forssberg H, Hadders-Algra M. Postural adjustments due to external perturbations during sitting in one-month-old infants: evidence for the innate origin of direction specificity. Exp Brain Res 2004; 157: 10-17.
Svejstrup H, Woollacott MH. Systems contributing to the emergence and maturation of stability in postnatal. In: Savelsbergh GJP. The Development of Coordination in Infancy. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1993: 319-36.
Ferreira JN, Barela JA. Passadas desencadeadas por esteira rolante em crianças portadoras de paralisia cerebral. Revista da SOBAMA 2000; 5: 39-44.
Sporns O, Edelman GM. Solving Bernstein’s problem: a proposal for the development of coordinated movement by selection. Child Dev 1993; 64: 960-81.
Piek JP. The role of variability in early motor development. Infant Behav Dev 2002; 25: 452-65.
Hadders-Algra M. The neuronal group selection theory: promising principles for understanding and treating developmental motor disorders. Dev Med Child Neurol 2000; 42: 707-15.
Nashner LM, Shumway-Cook A, Marin O. Stance posture control in select group of children with cerebral palsy: deficits in sensory organization and muscular coordination. Exp Brain Res 1983; 49: 393-409.
Hadders-Algra M, Van der Fits IBM, Stremmelar EF, Touwen BCL. Development of postural adjustments during reaching in infants with cerebral palsy. Dev Med Child Neurol 1999; 41: 766-76.
Blauw-Hosper CH, Hadders-Algra M. A systematic review of the effects of early intervention on motor development. Dev Med Child Neurol 2005; 47: 421-32.
