Motor Development
Motor skills develop progressively over time in concert with cognitive development. Motor development involves “muscular tension, strength, timing, and spatial orientation” (Tortura, 2006). Motor movement is the way in which an infant explores, orients, and integrates his world into his body, which is his primary means of communication and how he begins to understand himself in relationship to others. As he is held, as he is learning to grasp and to kick his legs, to roll and eventually to crawl, an infant is organizing his sense of self through his body.
Motor development occurs through both gross movements such as bouncing or kicking with legs, crawling, and eventually walking, jumping, and running and fine motor movement, including movements made by smaller muscles such as those in the fingers and face: pointing and pinching.
For further reading:
The Dancing Dialogue, by Suzi Tortura. Brookes Publishing.
Touchpoints, by Dr. T. B. Brazelton, M.D. & J.D. Sparrow, M.D. Da Capo Press
www.rie.org