Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations
Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations
Infant Toddler Learning & Development Foundations
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Perceptual and<br />
Motor <strong>Development</strong><br />
Perception refers to the process<br />
of taking in, organizing, and<br />
interpreting sensory information.<br />
Perception is multimodal, with multiple<br />
sensory inputs contributing to<br />
motor responses (Bertenthal 1996). An<br />
infant’s turning his head in response<br />
to the visual and auditory cues of the<br />
sight of a face and the sound of a voice<br />
exemplifies this type of perception.<br />
Intersensory redundancy, “the fact<br />
that the senses provide overlapping<br />
information . . . is a cornerstone of<br />
perceptual development” (Bahrick,<br />
Lickliter, and Flom 2004).<br />
“Motor development refers to<br />
changes in children’s ability to control<br />
their body’s movements, from infants’<br />
first spontaneous waving and kicking<br />
movements to the adaptive control<br />
of reaching, locomotion, and complex<br />
sport skills” (Adolph, Weise, and Marin<br />
2003, 134). The term motor behavior<br />
describes all movements of the body,<br />
including movements of the eyes (as<br />
in the gaze), and the infant’s developing<br />
control of the head. Gross motor<br />
actions include the movement of large<br />
limbs or the whole body, as in walking.<br />
Fine motor behaviors include the<br />
use of fingers to grasp and manipu-<br />
late objects. Motor behaviors such as<br />
reaching, touching, and grasping are<br />
forms of exploratory activity (Adolph<br />
1997).<br />
As infants develop increasing motor<br />
competence, they use perceptual information<br />
to inform their choices about<br />
which motor actions to take (Adolph<br />
and Joh 2007). For example, they may<br />
adjust their crawling or walking in<br />
response to the rigidity, slipperiness,<br />
or slant of surfaces (Adolph 1997).<br />
Motor movements, including movements<br />
of the eyes, arms, legs, and<br />
hands, provide most of the perceptual<br />
information infants receive (Adolph<br />
and Berger 2006). Young children’s<br />
bodies undergo remarkable changes in<br />
the early childhood years. In describing<br />
this development, Adolph and<br />
Avolio (2000, 1148) state, “Newborns<br />
are extremely top-heavy with large<br />
heads and torsos and short, weak<br />
legs. As infants grow, their body fat<br />
and muscle mass are redistributed. In<br />
contrast to newborns, toddlers’ bodies<br />
have a more cylindrical shape, and<br />
they have a larger ratio of muscle mass<br />
to body fat, especially in the legs.”<br />
These changes in weight, size, percentage<br />
of body fat, and muscle strength<br />
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