Motor Development /Sensorimotor Intelligence

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Describe the basic pattern of motor development in the first two years. (Chapter 5)? The first two years of an infant life is very interesting. The body and brain of infant’s development undergo a short span of time (Berger, 7edt. Pg139). Motor development in babies generally starts from head to toe; however, the time at which a baby learns to control his muscles varies from one baby to another. In the following paragraphs I will describe how babies generally learn to gain more control over their movements during their first two year. Throughout infancy newborns develop certain senses such as odor, tastes, sounds, and some visual configuration. For example, at birth typically a child’s vision is 20/600 and will not reach 20/20 until age two. They can usually focus on objects or people that are up to 4 to 30 inches away and can following a moving finger. Newborns also prefer colored stimuli compared to gray ones, but do not develop full perception of color until they are about four months old (Morrongiello et al., 1998). Newborns have reflexes as their sole physical ability. A reflex is an automatic body response to a stimulus that is involuntary; that is, the person has no control over this response. Blinking is a reflex which continues throughout life. There are other reflexes which occur in infancy and also disappear a few weeks or months after birth. The presence of reflexes at birth is an indication of normal brain and nerve development. When normal reflexes are not present or if the reflexes continue past the time they should disappear, brain or nerve damage is suspected. Therefore, some reflexes such as the rooting and sucking reflex, are needed for survival. The rooting reflex causes infants to turn their head toward anything that brushes their faces. This survival reflex helps them to find food such as a nipple. When an object is
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