Northern Caribbean University

Department of Natural and Applied

Science
By:Javel Mighty
Section: A
Mr. Burlon Panton
Physical Development in infants.

As depicted in the picture above, is a broken down stage of physical motor development
in infants, and their ability to perform tasks as each stage for different age groups.
Motor development refers to changes in children's ability to control their body's
movements, from infants' first spontaneous waving and kicking movements to the
adaptive control of reaching, locomotion, and complex sport skills (Adolph, Weise, and
Marin 2003, 134) it can also be referred to as the development of movement. The ability
to move is essential to human development. Many motor skills are necessary for
everyday life activities e.g. sitting, walking, running, climbing stairs, picking up objects,

using cups, knives and forks, pouring drinks, dressing, holding and using pencils, pens,
scissors and using keyboards. Basic motor skills can be further divided up into
Gross motor skills that are large movements of the body including sitting, walking,
running and climbing stairs.
Fine motor skills that involve the small movements of the fingers and hands. They
include picking up objects, using cups, knives and forks, pouring drinks, dressing,
holding and using pencils, pens, scissors and keyboards.
Movement can be seen and felt and a delay in motor development is usually the first sign
of a real problem because it is noticed far sooner than a problem with seeing, hearing or
communication. Motor development seems to follow a pattern. Large muscles develop
before smaller ones e.g. very young children find it easier to run than cutting with
scissors. Children also tend to develop in a head-to-toe pattern. For instance, babies move
their eyes, head and hands long before they learn to crawl.

REFERENCE

Goodman M. and Katz B., 1998, Cerebral Palsy Caring and Coping.
Witwatersrand University Press. Sacks B. and Buckley S., 2003,