Discuss how motor development is shaped by biological, psychological and environmental factors.

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  • Factors affecting motor development
    • Biological
      • Gross motor skills emerge directly from reflexes
        • Survival mechanism - programmed to pursue these skills
      • Neuromusclar maturation - changes in baby's muscles at each maturational stage
        • McGraw - 7 stages in the development of walking
          • Gessel - 22 stages in the development of crawling
      • Continuity between some foetal movement and later behaviour
        • Thelen (1984) - Stepping movements as foetus rotates leads to crawling and walking movements
    • Psychological
      • Dennis and Najaran (1957) - some deprived infants at an orphanage could not sit or stand
        • Supports Vygotsky- social stimulation required for zone of proximal development
          • Infants clearly can't develop their motor skills alone - contradicts maturational theory
    • Environmental
      • Dennis and Dennis (1940) - Hopi Indians of New Mexico carried infants on their back = less time to engage in motor activity
        • The infants learned to walk at the same time as the Westernised Hopi infants
          • Infants could still observe others around them engaging in motor activity
          • However... infants were not on their backs for more than 6 hours a day

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