Editing Motor skill (section)

== Development ==
Motor skills develop in different parts of a body along three principles:
* Cephalocaudal – the principle that development occurs from head to tail. For example, infants first learn to lift their heads on their own, followed by sitting up with assistance, then sitting up by themselves. Followed by scooting, crawling, pulling up, and then walking.
* Proximodistal – the principle that movement of limbs that are closer to the body develop before the parts that are further away. For example, a baby learns to control their upper arm before their hands and fingers. Fine movements of the fingers are the last to develop in the body.<ref name="Newton, T.J. 2012">Newton, T.J.,& Joyce, A.P. (2012).''Human Perspectives'' (6th ed.).Australia:Gregory.</ref>
* Gross to specific – a pattern in which larger muscle movements develop before finer movements. For example, a child will go from only being able to pick up large objects, to then being able to pick up an object that is small, between the thumb and fingers. The earlier movements involve larger groups of muscles, but as the child grows, finer movements become possible and specific tasks can be achieved.<ref name="Newton, T.J. 2012"/> An example of this would be a young child learning to grasp a pencil.

In children, a critical period for the development of motor skills is preschool years (ages 3–5), as fundamental neuroanatomic structure shows significant development, elaboration, and [[myelination]] over the course of this period.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Denckla MB|date=December 1974|title=Development of motor co-ordination in normal children|journal=Dev Med Child Neurol|volume=16|issue=6|pages=729–741|doi=10.1111/j.1469-8749.1974.tb03393.x|pmc=|pmid= 4442654}}</ref> Many factors contribute to the rate that children develop their motor skills. Unless afflicted with a severe disability, children are expected to develop a wide range of basic movement abilities and motor skills around a certain age.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Malina R|date=January 2004|title=Motor Development during Infancy and Early Childhood: Overview and Suggested Directions for Research|journal=International Journal of Sport and Health Science|volume=22|issue=|pages=50–60|doi=10.5432/ijshs.2.50|pmc=|pmid=}}</ref> Motor development progresses in seven stages throughout an individual's life: reflexive, rudimentary, fundamental, sports skill, growth and refinement, peak performance, and regression. Development is age-related but is not age dependent. In regard to age, it is seen that typical developments are expected to attain gross motor skills used for postural control and vertical mobility by 5 years of age.<ref>Rosenbaum P, Missiuna C, Johnson K. Longitudinal assessment of motor development in epidemiologic research for the national children’s study. Report for the NCS by Battelle Memorial Institute. 2004.</ref>

There are six aspects of development:
* Qualitative – changes in movement-process results in changes in movement-outcome.
* Sequential – certain motor patterns precede others.
* Cumulative – current movements are built on previous ones.
* Directional – cephalocaudal or proximodistal
* Multifactorial – numerous-factors impact
* Individual – dependent on each person

In the childhood stages of development, gender differences can greatly influence motor skills. In the article "An Investigation of Age and Gender Differences in Preschool Children's Specific Motor Skills", girls scored significantly higher than boys on visual motor and graphomotor tasks. The results from this study suggest that girls attain manual dexterity earlier than boys.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Junaid KA, Fellowes S|date=2006|title=Gender differences in the attainment of motor skills on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children|journal=Phys Occup Ther Pediatr|volume=26|issue=1–2|pages=5–11|doi=|pmc=|pmid=16938822}}</ref> Variability of results in the tests can be attributed towards the multiplicity of different assessment tools used.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Piek JP, Hands B, Licari MK|date=December 2012|title=Assessment of motor functioning in the preschool period|journal=Neuropsychol Rev|volume=22|issue=4|pages=402–413|doi=10.1007/s11065-012-9211-4|pmc=|pmid=22837070|hdl=20.500.11937/30178|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Furthermore, gender differences in motor skills are seen to be affected by environmental factors. In essence, "parents and teachers often encourage girls to engage in [quiet] activities requiring fine motor skills, while they promote boys' participation in dynamic movement actions".<ref name=vlachos >{{cite journal|vauthors=Vlachos F, Papadimitriou A, Bonoti F|date=February 2014|title=An investigation of age and gender differences in preschool children's specific motor skills|journal=European Psychomotricity Journal|volume=6|issue=|pages=12|doi=|pmc=|pmid=|issn=1791-3837}}</ref> In the journal article "Gender Differences in Motor Skill Proficiency From Childhood to Adolescence" by Lisa Barrett, the evidence for gender-based motor skills is apparent. In general, boys are more skillful in object control and object manipulation skills. These tasks include throwing, kicking, and catching skills. These skills were tested and concluded that boys perform better with these tasks. There was no evidence for the difference in locomotor skill between the genders, but both are improved in the intervention of physical activity. Overall, the predominance of development was on balance skills (gross motor) in boys and manual skills (fine motor) in girls.<ref name=vlachos />

===Components of development===
* Growth – increase in the size of the body or its parts as the individual progresses toward maturity (quantitative structural changes)
* Maturation – refers to qualitative changes that enable one to progress to higher levels of functioning; it is primarily innate
* Experience or learning – refers to factors within the environment that may alter or modify the appearance of various developmental characteristics through the process of learning
* Adaptation – refers to the complex interplay or interaction between forces within the individual (nature) and the environment (nurture)

=== Influences on development ===
* Stress and arousal – stress and anxiety are the result of an imbalance between the demand of a task and the capacity of the individual. In this context, arousal defines the amount of interest in the skill. The optimal performance level is moderate stress or arousal.<ref name="Yerkes & Dodson 1908">{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/cne.920180503 |title=The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation |journal=Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=459–482 |year=1908 |last1=Yerkes |first1=Robert M |last2=Dodson |first2=John D |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1426769 }}</ref>
* Fatigue – the deterioration of performance when a stressful task is continued for a long time, similar to the muscular fatigue experienced when exercising rapidly or over a long period. [[Fatigue (medical)|Fatigue]] is caused by over-arousal. Fatigue impacts an individual in many ways: perceptual changes in which visual acuity or awareness drops, slowing of performance (reaction times or movements speed), irregularity of timing, and disorganization of performance. A study conducted by Meret Branscheidt concluded that fatigue interferes with the learning of new motor skills. In the experiment, participants were split into two different groups. One group worked the muscles in their hands until they were physically fatigued and then had to learn a new motor task, while the second group learned the task without being fatigued. Those that were fatigued had a harder time learning these new motor skills compared to those who were not. Even in the days following, after the fatigue had subsided, they still had difficulty learning those same tasks.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Branscheidt|first1=Meret|last2=Kassavetis|first2=Panagiotis|last3=Anaya|first3=Manuel|last4=Rogers|first4=Davis|last5=Huang|first5=Han Debra|last6=Lindquist|first6=Martin A|last7=Celnik|first7=Pablo|title=Fatigue induces long-lasting detrimental changes in motor-skill learning|journal=eLife|year=2019|volume=8|pages=e40578|doi=10.7554/eLife.40578|issn=2050-084X|pmc=6443347|pmid=30832766 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
* Vigilance – the ability to maintain attention over time and respond appropriately to relevant stimuli. When vigilance is lost, it can result in slower responses or the failure to respond to stimuli all together.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ballester|first1=Rafael|last2=Huertas|first2=Florentino|last3=Yuste|first3=Francisco Javier|last4=Llorens|first4=Francesc|last5=Sanabria|first5=Daniel|date=2015-04-07|title=The Relationship between Regular Sports Participation and Vigilance in Male and Female Adolescents|journal=PLOS ONE|language=en|volume=10|issue=4|pages=e0123898|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0123898|issn=1932-6203|pmc=4388493|pmid=25849873|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1023898B|doi-access=free}}</ref> Some tasks include actions that require little work and high attention.<ref name="Kurt z">{{cite book |author1=Kurt z |author2=Lisa A. |title=Understanding Motor Skills in Children with Dyspepsia, ADHAM, Autism, and Other Learning Disabilities: A Guide to Improving Coordination (KP Essentials Series) (KP Essentials) |publisher=Jessica Kingsley Pub |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-84310-865-8 }}</ref>
* Gender – gender plays an important role in the development of the child. Girls are more likely to be seen performing fine stationary visual motor-skills, whereas boys predominantly exercise object-manipulation skills. While researching motor development in preschool-aged children, girls were more likely to be seen performing skills such as skipping, hopping, or skills with the use of hands only. Boys were seen to perform gross skills such as kicking or throwing a ball or swinging a bat. There are gender-specific differences in qualitative throwing performance, but not necessarily in quantitative throwing performance. Male and female athletes demonstrated similar movement patterns in humerus and forearm actions but differed in trunk, stepping, and backswing actions.