Motor Development: Locomotion, Ballistic Skills, Constraints, and Reflexes

Comprehensive practice flashcards defining core vocabulary, developmental sequences, locomotion patterns, constraints, and ballistic skills across all motor development lecture notes.

Motor Development

The continuous, age-related process of change in movement abilities that considers interacting constraints in the individual, environment, and task.

Motor Learning

Relatively permanent gains in motor skill capability associated with practice or experience, rather than age.

Motor Behavior

The overarching field combining the study of motor development and motor learning.

Motor Control

The neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of movement, specifically focusing on how the central nervous system controls muscles.

Physical Growth

A quantitative increase in size or body mass, typically viewed as a function of age.

Maturation

A qualitative advance in biological makeup that refers to cell, organ, or system advancement in biochemical composition toward peak or optimal function.

Aging

A process occurring with the passage of time that leads to a loss of adaptability or full function and eventually to death.

Constraints

Factors that discourage or limit certain movements while encouraging, permitting, or shaping other movements by channeling them toward specific patterns.

Newell's Model of Constraints

A framework stating that movement emerges from the dynamic interactions among individual constraints, environmental constraints, and task constraints.

Structural Constraints

Internal individual constraints related to the physical structure of the body, such as height and muscle mass.

Functional Constraints

Internal individual constraints related to behavioral function, including attention, motivation, fear, and past experience.

Environmental Constraints

Global, external constraints that are not task-specific, consisting of physical characteristics (e.g., gravity, surfaces, temperature) and sociocultural factors (e.g., gender roles, cultural norms).

Task Constraints

External factors specific to an activity or skill, including the movement goals, the rules guiding task performance, and required equipment.

Rate Limiter (Rate Controller)

An individual constraint or developing system that holds back or slows the emergence, execution, or maintenance of a motor skill.

Developmental Trajectory

A plotted curve showing the course of behavior change over time or age, typically plotted with time/age on the horizontal axis and behavioral advancement on the vertical axis.

Arrested Development

The failure of motor behavior to develop beyond a particular developmental level or point.

Proficiency Barrier

A developmental threshold proposed by Seedfeldt stating that if fundamental motor skills are not crossed by a certain age, subsequent motor skill development will be difficult.

Performance

A single attempt at a specific task that is influenced by past experience, current system state, and psychological state, which then informs future performances.

Mixed Design

A developmental research method that measures a cross section of participants over an extended, overlapping period of time, making it the design least susceptible to cohort effects.

Universality vs. Variability

A developmental paradox wherein individuals of a species show stereotypical, universal motor progressions while simultaneously demonstrating individual differences in timing and developmental pathways.

Spontaneous Movements

Early infant movements not caused by any known external stimuli, which serve as foundational building blocks for later voluntary movements.

Infantile Reflex

An involuntary, stereotypical movement response elicited by a specific external stimulus, observed specifically during infancy and localized to a single muscle or specific muscle group.

Primitive Reflexes

A category of strong infant reflexes present at birth that diminish in strength and typically disappear around $4\text{ months}$ of age.

Postural Reactions

Also known as gravity reflexes; automatic responses appearing after $2\text{ months}$ of age that help an infant maintain posture in a changing environment before disappearing late in the first or early second year.

Locomotor Reflexes

Involuntary reflexive movements that resemble voluntary behaviors, appearing earlier than voluntary skills and typically disappearing months before voluntary locomotion is attempted.

Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex

A primitive reflex elicited in the supine position by turning the infant's head to one side, causing the arm and leg on the same side to extend.

Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex

A reflex in a supported sitting infant where flexing or extending the head/neck causes arms to flex and legs to extend, or arms to extend and legs to flex.

Moro Reflex

A startle reflex elicited by shaking an infant's head, causing the arms, legs, and fingers to extend, followed by flexion of the arms and legs.

Palmar Grasp Reflex

A primitive reflex triggered by touching the palm with a finger or object, causing the infant's hand to close tightly around it.

Derotative Righting

A postural reaction where turning the head to one side (or turning the pelvis) causes the body, trunk, and head to follow in sequential rotation.

Parachute Reaction

A postural reaction elicited by lowering an upright infant rapidly toward the ground, causing the arms and legs to extend.

Labyrinthine Righting Reflex

A postural reaction where tilting a supported upright infant causes the head to automatically tilt back to stay upright.

Motor Milestone

A fundamental motor skill whose attainment is associated with the acquisition of later voluntary movements.

Crawling (Commando Crawl)

An early form of infant locomotion where movement is accomplished across a surface using the hands and abdomen.

Creeping

A form of infant locomotion characterized by moving across the floor on the hands and knees.

Walking

The first form of upright, bipedal locomotion, defined by $50\%$ phasing between the legs and an alternating period of double support followed by single support.

Stability vs. Mobility Trade-off

The developmental compromise where early movers prioritize balance and stability over movement speed, whereas proficient performers sacrifice stability to maximize speed and mobility.

Double Knee-Lock

A pattern adopted by proficient walkers where the knee extends at heel strike, flexes slightly during midstance, and extends again at push-off.

Running

A locomotor skill emerging $6$ to $7\text{ months}$ after walking begins, defined by $50\%$ phasing between the legs and a flight phase followed by single support.

Jump

A locomotor action where an individual propels themselves off the ground using one or two feet and lands simultaneously on two feet.

Hop

A locomotor action where an individual propels themselves off the ground with one foot and lands on the same foot.

Leap

A locomotor action where an individual propels themselves off the ground with one foot, extends the flight period, and lands on the opposite foot.

Gallop

An asymmetric locomotor skill consisting of a forward step on one foot followed by a leap onto the other foot.

Slide

An asymmetric locomotor skill consisting of a sideways step on one foot followed by a leap onto the other foot.

Skip

A symmetric locomotor skill consisting of alternating step-hops taken first on one foot and then on the other.

TGMD-3 (Locomotor Scale)

A standardized gross motor test assessing run, gallop, one-leg hop, skip, jump, and slide across $3$ to $5$ performance criteria each, with a maximum score of $46$.

Ballistic Skills

Motor skills in which the performer applies force to an external object in order to project it, such as throwing, kicking, and striking.

Product Measures

Quantitative outcome measurements of a movement skill, such as accuracy, distance, or ball velocity.

Process Measures

Qualitative movement evaluations that analyze the developmental sequences and movement patterns of a skill.

Observation Plan for Throwing

A systematic diagnostic flowchart used to assess developmental steps across foot action, trunk action, backswing, humerus action, and forearm action during an overarm throw.

Differentiated Trunk Rotation

A proficient throwing component where the pelvis/lower trunk initiates forward rotation before the upper trunk rotates, rather than rotating as a single block.

Forearm Lag

A characteristic of advanced throwing where the forearm and projectile trail behind upper body forward rotation before extending forward.

Kicking

A ballistic striking skill using the foot that requires perceptual abilities and eye-foot coordination to make contact with a ball.