Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations

Perceptual and
Motor Development
Perception refers to the process
of taking in, organizing, and
interpreting sensory information.
Perception is multimodal, with multiple
sensory inputs contributing to
motor responses (Bertenthal 1996). An
infant’s turning his head in response
to the visual and auditory cues of the
sight of a face and the sound of a voice
exemplifies this type of perception.
Intersensory redundancy, “the fact
that the senses provide overlapping
information . . . is a cornerstone of
perceptual development” (Bahrick,
Lickliter, and Flom 2004).
“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). The term motor behavior
describes all movements of the body,
including movements of the eyes (as
in the gaze), and the infant’s developing
control of the head. Gross motor
actions include the movement of large
limbs or the whole body, as in walking.
Fine motor behaviors include the
use of fingers to grasp and manipu-
late objects. Motor behaviors such as
reaching, touching, and grasping are
forms of exploratory activity (Adolph
1997).
As infants develop increasing motor
competence, they use perceptual information
to inform their choices about
which motor actions to take (Adolph
and Joh 2007). For example, they may
adjust their crawling or walking in
response to the rigidity, slipperiness,
or slant of surfaces (Adolph 1997).
Motor movements, including movements
of the eyes, arms, legs, and
hands, provide most of the perceptual
information infants receive (Adolph
and Berger 2006). Young children’s
bodies undergo remarkable changes in
the early childhood years. In describing
this development, Adolph and
Avolio (2000, 1148) state, “Newborns
are extremely top-heavy with large
heads and torsos and short, weak
legs. As infants grow, their body fat
and muscle mass are redistributed. In
contrast to newborns, toddlers’ bodies
have a more cylindrical shape, and
they have a larger ratio of muscle mass
to body fat, especially in the legs.”
These changes in weight, size, percentage
of body fat, and muscle strength
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