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Movement Planning Reflects Skill Level and Age Changes in Toddlers
Author(s) -
Chen Yuping,
Keen Rachel,
Rosander Kerstin,
Von Hofsten Claes
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01514.x
Subject(s) - psychology , task (project management) , tower , kinematics , movement (music) , block (permutation group theory) , motor planning , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , physical medicine and rehabilitation , engineering , mathematics , medicine , philosophy , physics , civil engineering , geometry , systems engineering , classical mechanics , aesthetics
Kinematic measures of children’s reaching were found to reflect stable differences in skill level for planning for future actions. Thirty‐five toddlers (18–21 months) were engaged in building block towers (precise task) and in placing blocks into an open container (imprecise task). Sixteen children were retested on the same tasks a year later. Longer deceleration as the hand approached the block for pickup was found in the tower task compared with the imprecise task, indicating planning for the second movement. More skillful toddlers who could build high towers had a longer deceleration phase when placing blocks on the tower than toddlers who built low towers. Kinematic differences between the groups remained a year later when all children could build high towers.