Motor Development in Early and Later Childhood
Longitudinal Approaches

Researchers from a variety of different backgrounds and disciplines provide a broad-ranging analysis of human motor development, from both a practical and theoretical perspective.

Alex Fedde Kalverboer (Edited by), Brian Hopkins (Edited by), Reint Geuze (Edited by), David Magnusson (Foreword by)

9780521401012, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 February 1993

404 pages, 51 b/w illus. 29 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.751 kg

"...[the book's] scope is very impressive...the editors (and authors) have done a splendid job of cross-referencing among the different parts of the book...an interesting and quite readable summary..." H.L. Pick, Contemporary Psychology

Motor development is an integral part of the developmental process. Understanding the organization of the sensory-motor system and its adaptations in response to environmental factors is a vital part of understanding individual development as a whole. This volume describes and discusses human motor development using longitudinal study methods, and from an interdisciplinary perspective. Researchers from a variety of different backgrounds and disciplines provide a broad-ranging analysis of human motor development, from both the practical and theoretical standpoint, in a book which will be of great interest to paediatricians, psychologists, developmental biologists, developmental psychiatrists and neurologists as well as to research scientists in these fields.

List of contributors
Foreword
Preface
Part I. Setting The Scene: 1. Motor development in children at risk: two decades of research in experimental clinical psychology A. F. Kalverboer
2. Longitudinal studies in motor development: developmental neurological considerations B. C. L. Touwen
Part II. Biological Basis of Motor Development: 3. Principles of early motor development in the human H. F. R. Prechtl
Natural priorities for developmental study: neuroembryological perspectives of motor development R. R. Provine
5. The 'fixed action pattern' concept revisited: an ethological commentary on the chapters by Prechtl and Provine G. P. Baerends and T. G. G. Groothuis
Part III. Development of Body Posture and Goal Directed Reaching: 6. Early postnatal development of posture control: normal and abnormal aspects M. H. Wollacott
7. Studying the development of goal-directed behaviour C. von Hofsten
8. Development of motor functions: a 'developmental neurological' approach P. Casaer
Part IV. Motor Development, Early Communication and Cognition: 9. Early interactional signalling: the role of facial movements H. Papousek and M. Papousek
10. Motor development: communication and cognition G. Butterworth and F. Franco
11. On faces and hands and the development of communication B. Hopkins
Part V. Acquisition Of Skills: 12. Individual patterns of tool use by infants K. Connolly and M. Dalgleshi
13. Tool use, hand cooperation and the development of object manipulation in human and non-human primates J. Vauclair
14. Handwriting: a developmental perspective G. P. Van Galen
15. Development of children's writing performance: some educational implications N. Søvik
Part IV. Motor Development and Handicap: 16. Early motor development in term and preterm children R. H. Largo, S. Kundu and L. Thun-Hohenstein
17. Relationship between perinatal risk factors and motor development at the ages of 5 and 9 years K. Michelsson and E. Lindahl
18. Motor development and minor handicap S. E. Henderson
19. Longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches in experimental studies in motor development R. H. Geuze
Part VII. Methodological and Conceptual Considerations: 20. The longitudinal study of motor development: methodological issues W. Schneider
21. Theoretical issues in the longitudinal study of motor development B. Hopkins, P. J. Beek and A. F. Kalverboer
Epilogue: description versus explanation B. Hopkins, A. F. Kalverboer and R. H. Geuze
Index.

Subject Areas: Paediatric medicine [MJW]