A developmental perspective is essential to our understanding of movement and
mobility. A person’s motor behavior position at any point in his life reflects his
past movement experiences and presages his future ones. This paper presents
a brief overview of the major periods of motor skill development using a
metaphor of a mountain. Evidence is presented in support of the importance
of early perceptual-motor experience for later skill attainment. The paper
concludes with a commentary on future research issues that would inform
our understanding of a developmental perspective on movement and mobility
and stresses the importance of studying this issue from the beginning.
Life is animation. To live is to move. For humans, movement is essential for
our survival. Our blood’s circulation depends on our movement, we feed ourselves
by moving, and with movement we communicate. But it is not movement per se that
ensures our survival. Rather, survival requires that our movements be adaptive, goaldirected
actions that are goal-achieving. For humans, such goal-directed behaviors
are not part of our movement repertoire at birth. Indeed, the human neonate is
motorically challenged, dependent completely on caregivers for survival. Over the
next few months and years, dramatic changes occur in our movement and mobility
resulting in the achievement of independent, goal-directed movements. What is the
nature of this change? What are the implications of these changes for a lifetime of
moving? And in particular, what is the influence of early movement experiences
on later movement and mobility?
In the same way as physiology and psychology are epistemological
perspectives on movement, so too is development. This paper begins with a
discussion of development as a perspective on movement and mobility. Following
this discussion, a heuristic framework within which to situate our understandings
of the changes that occur across the lifespan will be described. The second section