DEVELOPING CHILDREN— THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT A Guide for Teachers Mary Ann Roberton Associate Professor Lolas E. Halverson Professor The School of Education Department of Physical Education and Dance University of Wisconsin—Madison Madison, Wisconsin Lea & Febiger 1984 PhiladelphiaTo Lew Ellen, Kelly, and Kim Erickson; Howard, Mary, and John Reddan; and Charles Roberts—thank you for letting us share your “growing up” years. Ann, ‘ Bae sie changing movement. Tnehide alee 1. Movement education. 2, Child development 3 ae ability in children. 1 Halverson, Lolas E. V452.R62 1983 372.8'6 ISBN 0-5121-0919-8 83-17513 Copyright © 1984 by Lea & Febiger Copyright under the Inter- national Copyright Union. All Rights Reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may he reproduced in any manner or by any means without written permission of the Publisher, Printed in the United States of America Print Number:5 4 3 2 1Preface The basic premise of this book on motor development is that all children deserve the opportunity to become confident and competent in controlling their moving bodies. Further- more, they deserve the chance to experience the joyfulness of skillfully executed movement and the fun of using that movement for a variety of self-chosen, recreational purposes. This premise assumes that parents and teachers should take an active interest in promoting children’s motor skill devel- opment, This interest can take the form of working with chil- dren at home on gross and fine motor skills; or it can be expressed through efforts to improve the formal physical ed- ucation program offered by schools and agencies. A second premise of this book is that at no time should children be made to feel inferior because of their motor skill. At all times, parents and teachers should design the motor tasks children attempt so that they experience more success than failure. In motor skills, as nowhere else, “success breeds success” and “failure breeds failure.” It seems to us that the key to implementing these beliefs lies in parents or teachers recognizing where particular chil- dren are in their development and, then, designing motor challenges appropriate to that developmental level. The pur- pose of this book is to explain the available developmental information in a way that will help parents and teachers begin to-do just that. For instance, each section of the book is fol-PREFACE discussion relating the information to teaching or hildren, We have tried to present Piagetian con- le, not only as interesting information but also aving implications for structuring the motor-learning en- nment. Motor development levels are not presented as . etions but, rather, as specific movements that provide ae for parents and teachers as they observe their children action. Mastering the information in this text will not be easy but, ‘then, teaching is not easy. The book is not written to be read ‘continuously like a novel; rather, we have tried to organize it into logical sections to facilitate careful and repeated study. In the long run, one learns to “see” children’s motor development ‘only through such study and practice. Yet, we have always found that teachers of movement—be they parents, classroom teachers, or physical education specialists—ean quickly learn to observe motor: development and to act on their observations, Moreover, they find the process fun. So, knowing the route will be challenging, but hoping it will also be fun, we invite our readers to journey with us through the fascinating, rewarding world of children and their movement, Madison, Wisconsin Mary Ann Roberton Lolas E, Halverson Contents Concepts of Learning and Development... .. The Teacher as Observer, Interpreter, Decision-Maker Developing Children—Similar but Unique ... Stages of Development .......... Wise Overview of the Developing Child . Cognitive Development . contri Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Teaching Implications Perceptual Development... Increased Discrimination Increased Attention to Relevant Information Increased Intersensory Integration Teaching Implications Psychosocial Development ........s.000s0000 Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development Teaching Implications Aggressive Behavior Teaching Implications Competitive and Cooperative Behavior Teaching Implications Art Development yaccsciaiae odaaeanneeaunane ate Stages in Self-Taught Art Teaching Implications Motor Development. ....... : Locomotion on the Feet oo... .0660000seeses Daun or 1 17 41 42lopment. rent in the Gymnasium nt in Other Locomotor Tasks nental Trends Across Foot Locomotion motion on Other Body Parts...........0.0.0045 84 ‘Use of Arms and Hands Losing the Curl Development of the Forward Roll Teaching Hints Nonlocomotion . ate aa Bending and Stretching Twisting and Turning Avoiding Contact with Objects oo... 60... 00.c0se0 + 99, ‘Teaching Implications Sending Objects Away . 102, Development of Trunk Action in Throwing and Striking Teaching Hints Opening Up Development of Arm Action Development of Foot Action Movement Profile Teaching Hints Special Aspects of Striking Perceptual Complexities and Teaching ........ aa Development of Other Movement Aspects. .. . . 15 Developmental Hypotheses Developmental Interrelationships ........,..,...... 126 CONTENTS xi Visual-Perceptual Development and Motor Devel- opment Teaching Implications Intervention . 141 Success... : dL The Cycle Begins Aj 142 Index.Developing Children— Their Changing Movement A Guide for Teachers As parents or teachers, most of us recognize that a program of movement experiences can be beneficial for children. Yet, when we turn to textbooks or guides for help in knowing what kinds of experiences are possible, we must always read with specific children in mind. Are they ready for this experience? How will they react? How will we know if their movement and self-confidence are improving or suffering from a particular practice? Whether we are teachers in formal programs or par- ents providing informal experiences, all our decisions should stem from where we think children are in their development. A working knowledge of child development, with particularnv = " _ CONCEPTS OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Many words imply behavioral or structural change in living organisms over time. Anthropologists study evolution, the changes measured across generations. Some psychologists and biologists study development, the change within an individual's life span or during several years of that life span. Other psy- chologists study learning, a change within an individual that is measured over days or weeks. Thus, evolution, develop- ment, and learning all have similar meanings. We shall dis- tinguish between them only in terms of (1) the time span over which the change is studied (generations, years, days) and (2) the unit showing the change (across individuals, within indi- viduals). Teachers are interested in children’s daily changes (learning) that promote long-term progress (development). Behavioral or structural change is the result of interactions between a child and the environment. Learning and devel- opment do not occur solely through features within the indi. vidual (as the old term “maturation” implied) or through fea: tures solely outside the individual. Rather, they result from the unique coincidence of each acting upon the other. For example, children cannot learn to throw forcefully without an object to throw and without practice in throwing it; however, the presence of that environmental stimulus, even practice does not ensure that children will change their way of throwing. Instead, they may change the object or the task to fit their present throwing behavior, or they may choose to ignore the stimulus entirely. A child’s nervous system and mental state must be “ready” for change. The child must then encounter the proper experience for her particular level. Only this unique circle of interaction between the child and the environment will result in learning DEVELOPING CHILDREN— on motor development, forms the basis for intelli- 1g motor skills to children. THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 3 How to detect a child’s internal state of readiness and how to determine which environmental experiences will interact with that state are still unknown. We can only say that read- iness at any given moment is the result of all the interactions that have formed the child, ie., readiness is the child’s current state of development. We can begin to detect this internal state only by observing the child's outward behavior, Although we cannot change children’s sex, genes, endocrine systems, or past interactions, we can give them many oppor- tunities for acting upon and being acted upon by their envi- ronment. We can try to sequence these encounters or help the children sequence them as a result of the behaviors we see. In this fashion, we use children’s present readiness as a guide for building their future readiness, THE TEACHER AS OBSERVER, INTERPRETER, DECISION- MAKER We have defined learning as the change resulting from a circle of interaction between the child and the environment, Although no teacher is needed to produce learning, teaching occurs when a second person enters the circle as (1) an ob- server, (2) an interpreter, and (3) a decision-maker. The teacher first observes what the environment demands: what must the child do to succeed at the task being attempted? The teacher then observes what the child is doing in response to that task and how it is being done After making these observations, the teacher must interpret them. What is the meaning of a child's solution to a particular movement problem? Does it indicate a more advanced form of movement? Does it suggest improved perceptual function- ing? Is the solution a cognitive attempt to avoid a balance- threatening position? Does the child's response suggest that the task is too stressful, too complex at that particular mo- ment—that the child is not “ready” for it?DEVELOPING CHILDREN— these observations, the teacher then sp, Should he take an active role by inter- ie child and the environment alone? If he lecides to intervene, in what way should he do so? Should he ‘redesign the physical environment or verbally coach the child ‘or show a possible solution? moan ‘the teacher intervenes or does not intervene, the cycle ‘Fepeats itself. The teacher again observes the child and the environment, interprets what is seen in order to evaluate the ‘earlier decision, and makes a new decision. Clearly, the sound- ness of this cyclic approach to teaching depends on the ac ‘curacy of both the teacher's observation skills and the inter- Pretation of those observations in terms of developmental progress. DEVELOPING CHILDREN—SIMILAR BUT UNIQUE i Every child has a sense of “wholeness,” a sense of u nique- ness, a sense of “me” that remains even as the child continually changes. Children are developing wholes, but within the whole is a pattern interwoven from many strands. At any mo- ment, children are a product of all the changes that have occurred within all parts of their “biopsychology”: within their muscle and skeletal systems, their endocrine systems, their nervous systems, Each of these action systems has its own course of devel ‘opment, Each system proceeds on this course at a different tate. The complex pattern created by the separate develop- mental levels of all the systems at any given instant comprises the individual child at that point in time. For this reason, every child is unique; in no two children would all aspects of development arrive at the same point at the same time. The special pattern created by the individual action systems within each child, the “me” of that child, clearly supports the adage, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT s STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT Human beings do have a common biopsychologic substrate and environments that are more alike than different. It is logical, therefore, that across the spectrum of uniqueness we should see similarities in development. Each biopsychologic system of the body tends to develop in much the same way across individuals. Sometimes, this common development is charted in “stages.” A stage describes a characteristic way of behaving within an action system that is noticeably different from previous or later ways of behaving, These stages are sequenced according to their order of appearance in most in- dividuals, The levels of each sequence form a developmental continuum across the life span. Since each system proceeds along its continuum at different rates in different people, development is not age-determined, Five years of environment-child interactions will have pro- duced different rates of development in Jirn than in Carl. The sequence of stages will be the same for both children, but one child will have passed through more stages within a given action system than did the other child; he will be further along the continuum within that system, Knowledge of developmental stages provides the teacher with a way to interpret observations of the children whose learning circle has been entered, It is a way to categorize and thus organize the learnings seen, The teacher interprets these observations in terms of the child's progress along the child's own continuum. Each individual's behavior represents “more” or “less” advancement in development. In addition, by know- ing stage characteristics, the teacher can better plan experi- ences to facilitate the child’s further development as well as to broaden and enrich that child’s encounters at the child’s present stage of development. Looking at one child's behavior in relation to stage se- quences that are based on similarities across many childreni DEVELOPING CHILDREN— ae eens that particular “whole” child, provides a way to unravel the pattern of multiple : m change that makes the child unique. This ap- ‘proach allows the child to be treated as an individual, since it ‘Gives the teacher the information necessary to make sound ecisions about intervening in that child's learning process, ving stage sequences is the first step toward individual- izing instruction, OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPING CHILD The following sections give a selective overview of a few of the biopsychologie systems developing within the child, Since the primary responsibility of the physical education teacher is to promote motor development, that system is discussed in detail later. Children, however, bring their entire selves to the gymnasium, so the teacher of movement needs to recog- nize and encourage development in all parts of those selves. ‘The research and theories cited have been chosén to provide the “flavor” of current thinking about human development, thinking’ that stresses the dynamic interactions between ac- tively exploring children and their personal world. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Recent research on children’s cognitive development has been stimulated by the theories of Jean Piaget.* One of Piaget's major contributions has been to demonstrate that children's thinking is qualitatively different from that of adults. In ad- dition to differing in the amount of information they possess about the world (a quantitative difference), children and adults also differ in the way they use or understand that information. Following are examples: If one pours the contents of a transparent beaker of water (A) into another transparent beaker (B) which is taller but nar- THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT rower, a child under approximately 6 years of age will insist that since the water in B is higher than it was in A, it has increased in amount. Even when the child himself does the Pouring and knows no water has been added or subtracted, he is unable to conserve substance; that is, to see that although the water has undergone a transformation in height and width, it is the same amount of water. ¥ At age 7 or 8, however, the child readily agrees that the amount of water has stayed the same, The child now conserves substance just as an adult, He will not conserve weight, how- ever, until age 9 or 10; nor volume until age 11 or 12. An adult places 5 red poker chips in a row on a table. Right below them in another row she places 5 blue poker chips. After that, she asks a 5- or 6-year-old which row has more chips, The child will count, then say the two rows are the same, The adult now spaces the blue chips farther apart so that the blue row is longer than the red row, She asks the child again which row has more chips. The child will now assure the adult that more chips are in the blue row. Again, by age 7 or 8 that same child «will just as strongly maintain that the number of chips did not change even though their spacing did! Young children are also unable to reason simultaneously about wholes and parts. A teacher shows a 5-year-old a group of poker chips, most of which are red and a fow of which are blue. If he asks the child, “Are there more chips or more red chips?” the child will say there are more red chips. Thi then asks the ehild to sort yellow or red squares and red circles into separate piles of yellow squares, yellow circles, red squares, and red circles, She will be unable to do so. She can sort circles from squares, or red objects from yellaw objects, but she cannot mentally combine the two elasses to form a sorting rule; Piaget has also pointed out that language usage and mental development are not synonymous. Children use many words in their everyday conversation that they do not understand in the adult sense. A 6-year-old defines a brother as "a boy who Not until that child is in fourth or fifth inship relation implied by the lives in my house.” grade will he understand the word.DEVELOPING CHILDREN— Stages of Cognitive Development his study of the different cognitive operations exhib- as they grow older, Piaget hypothesized four stages of cognitive development: STAGE I. SENSORIMOTOR INTELLIGENCE. This earliest level of intellectual development occurs prior to the child's ability to use symbols, ¢.g., language. Infants “know” the world only as they act upon it. During this stage, objects gradually acquire a permanence, so that the child continues to search for them if they disappear, Gradually, the child also Beneralizes motor patterns to accomplish new ends, first for- tuitously and then purposefully, ‘ STAGE 2. PREOPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, When about 2 years of age, children begin to acquire the use of symbols, They start to imitate past occurrences, recognize forms in their scribbles, and use language. Thus, the period from approximately 2 to 7 years of. age is a time of movement away from external action toward internal representation, It is a dramatic change from infancy but still a long way from adult thinking. Preoperational children do not realize there are points of view other than their own. They are animistic, attributing life and consciousness to all mov ‘ing objects, such as the sun and wind, Since their thinking is not organized according to logical rules, they tend to perform as did the children in the preceding examples from Piagetian research. STAGE 3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. From about 7 to 11 years of age, children acquire the ability toconserve, to see the relationship between parts and wholes (class inclusion), to form a mental representation of a series of actions, and to order or seriate objects according to different dimensions. These mental operations occur gradually as chil- dren develop “reversibility”—the ability to employ mentally the logically meaningful opposite of a given action (adding- subtracting, uniting-separating), As these mental operations THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 3 occur with experience, they generalize to further concepts. Not until age 12, however, does a child’s thinking begin to acquire adult characteristies. STAGE 4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, The major characteristic of adolescent and adult thinking is its sep- aration from the concrete and present, Adolescents can deal with hypotheses rather than being limited to concrete obser- vations. They can also use “if'then" and “either-or” proposi- tions, Young children use those words but do not understand their logical implications. Adolescent thinking, in short, re- sembles formal problem-solving or scientific thinking; it is log- ical and systematic. The adolescent and adult are also able to think about thought itself: to step aside and view themselves and their ideas from the perspective of another person. Piaget called the impetus for progression through these stages an equilibration process, a continual balance and im- balance between two child-environment actions, assimilation and accommodation. In assimilation children incorporate the environment into their present mental structure; they gen- eralize, rightly or wrongly, what they already “know.” In ac- commodation, they change their mental structure to better match the environment. Thus, in assimilation, children fit the environment to their view; in accommodation, children change to fit the environment. Movement through stages is theoret- ically caused by the continual tension between these two proc- esses. Teaching Implications Human movement has often been used by both classroom teachers and physical educators as an active means to develop a cognitive concept, It is more meaningful (and fun) to build -s, roll circles, run through, around, and over circles than imply to discuss circles. A problem, however, can occur if it becomes more prestigious in the physical educator's mind toDEVELOPING CHILDREN— mn learn “through movement” than “just” to help to move, By becoming only another means of rein- g classroom activities, many well-intentioned physical i Programs have lost their emphasis on learning to ‘moye efficiently and joyfully, which is their uniqueness in the school curriculum. The well-balanced program, on the other hand, contributes to classroom goals, but retains its unique os 6n promoting motor development for its own sake. ius, the classroom teacher ought to en courage cognitive growth through movement-centered cognitive acti the teacher of movement, however, will primarily use cognitive developmental information to help children improve and understand their own movement, The equilibration theory, for instance, describes the general environment for developing an intellectual understanding of the world of movement. This environment should allow active knowing on the part of the child rather than passive reception. For both assimilation and accommodation to occur, children must engage in exploring and thinking about the movement problem at hand—in ob- Serving, trying, testing, and changing either the problem or themselves. Rather than imposing a concept about movement efficiency on children, physical educators should guide them to discover efficient, effective movement for themselves. Then, they should help the child verbalize why it was efficient and effective. This system of inquiry or problem-solving, through all its phases, engages children in active, directed thinking about their movement, It also helps the teacher to determine both verbally and nonverbally whether the chil understanding basic biomechanical concepts and assimilating more motor tasks to those concepts. Because most pre- and elementary school children are at Preoperative or concrete operative stages of cognitive devel- opment, problem-solving must be used carefully, Most teach ers treat children as if they were in the stage of formal oper- ations. Instead, they should be presenting problems slowly, THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 11 concretely, and only gradually chaining them into a series. Children need to be frequently asked whether they under- stand their tasks. Their nonverbal answers often give more accurate clues to this question than their verbal ones. Repe- tition that allows children to assimilate a certain movement answer should also be encouraged before challenging them to produce a variety of answers, Anytime teachers are talking with children—whether dis- cussing a concept such as absorption of force, giving directions, introducing a new movement word for their vocabulary, or explaining a teacher-developed game— they should be sure the children are “with” them by asking them to rephrase the conversation in their own words. Using concrete illustrations and constantly asking questions rather than giving answers typifies the physical educator who is aware of children’s cog- nitive development. PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT Perception is the process through which an individual ex- tracts information from the environment. This definition im- plies active exploration of, and selection from, the mass of stimuli available. It also implies interpretation of the stimuli selected. While researchers still cannot adequately explain how the perceptual process works, they have made consid- erable progress in describing the perceptual behavior of both children and adults, From this research, it is evident that adults and children differ in the kind and amount of infor- mation they extract from their environment and in the strat- egies they use to extract the informa Although Piaget interweaves some perceptual development within his cognitive theory, no one has identified stages of perception. Age differences in perceptual behavior, however, do imply several developmental trends. Three suggested in part by Gibson are (1) increasing discrimination, (2) increasingDEVELOPING CHILDREN— to relevant information, and (3) increasing intersen- gration. While these selected trends are only a few possible, they should be useful guides for observing ptual behavior of children, ‘Inereased Discrimination Infants often repond to a generalized stimulus providing Sparse sources of information. For exam ple, an infant will smile — at a nodding object approximately the size of a human head. even if it has no eyes, nose, or mouth. Motion seems to be the sufficient or salient event for the response, While recog- nizing differences in faces continues to improve to the age of 14 years or beyond, by 8 months the child can discriminate a face from a model and a familiar face from an unfamiliar one.4 Four- and 5-year-olds still lump together similar objects with distinctive characteristics that developmentally more-ad- vanced children would use as information, For example, these children may discriminate between open and closed leters fi such as C and O, but fail to discriminate such properties as straightness or curves, thus confusing letters such as D and , or U and V. They may fail to notice reversals and confuse the letters b and d, or they may happily accept letters such as M and W or N and Z as the “same.” When contrasted with older children and adults, young ehil- dren also have more. difficulty in accurately discriminating colors, leigths, widths, weights, tones, velocities, and tex= tures.® Detection of the spatial directions of up and down, however, appears early, Young children have considerably less difficulty in identifying the top and bottom than the right and left side of an object (including their own body), Some depth Perception is present early in development as evidenced in the “visual cli” experiments, During these experiments in= fants were unwilling to crawl to their mothers across what Appeared to be a drop-off. Even so, not until school age or ‘THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 13 later does depth perception become relatively consistent and accurate under changing conditions.2® Increased Attention to Relevant Information Even into the school years, children’s attention may be “cap- tured” by environmental stimuli. The capturing stimulus be- comes the stimulus of interest for the young child and may mask or conflict with the less capturing stimuli necessary to accomplish a given task, For example, Suchman and Trabasso observed nursery school children in a two-stimulus (color and shape) sorting task.® The children who had exhibited a pref erence for color as the key feature for sorting made more errors when shape was the “correct” response but fewer errors when color was the “correct” response, The reverse was true for children who preferred to sort by shape. Suecess in the situ- ation was apparently dependent on the selective attention of the children for color or for form. Increasing perceptual eflectiveness, therefore, also involves the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli, In an investigation of decision-making speed, Connolly indicated that the amount of irrelevant stimuli inereased decision times of 6-, 8-, and 10- year-olds, particularly the 6-year-olds.° He concluded that the young child has more difficulty in ignoring irrelevant infor- mation, which then causes a “perceptual overload,” In another study, 5-year-old children were trained to identify 9 Roman capital letters, 3 each in a different color. When tested on black letters, the children could identify not only the letters but also the colors associated with them. Nine-year-olds in similar tests could not identify the colors associated with the letters and, in some instances, could not even recall what colors had been used, Thus, the younger children had taken in more information than was needed while the older children had selected only the information necessary to the task.? Picking out shapes, designs, or objects from a camouflagingDEVELOPING CHILDRI example, finding a lost marble in the gi § 4 moving red playground ball Shae ygrounc against the puoi 17, after which there is a slight decrease through age 1H Herkowitz, noting that most figure-ground measures are stationary, devised a moving embedded-figures test using Motion pictures." She also found improvement across 5+ through 12-year-old children, f Increased Intersensory Integration The child’s environment presents an array of stimuli, which are received through more than one sense modality. Just how the child selects and combines such input is not well under stood. One approach in studying intersensory function is to Present identical or nonidentical stimuli to two senses simul taneously Or sequentially, noting the accuracy of same-differ- ent judgments. In studying visual-haptic integration, for ex ample, the visually perceived object must be judged the same as or different from one actively handled. (Haptic refers to the complex of tactile and kinesthetic cues received in handling. an object.) Reports have shown increased visual-haptic inter= Sensory accuracy in shape identification from ages 3 through 14," Birch and Lefford also noted increases in visual-kin- esthetic (passive movement) and haptic-kinesthetic intersen- sory accuracy for 5- through 11-year-alds. * Birch and Belmont found auditory-visual integration in reading more or less com- plete by the filth grade.” Nash noted that some intersensory relationships may be inherently more complicated than others.!" For instance, it tay be easier to relate information extracted through vision and touch than through vision and audition. He commented THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 15 that a cross is a cross whether apprehended by sight or by touch. Recognizing the similarity between the seen cat and the heard meow, however, appears to require more abstrac- tion. Further, the similarity between the printed CAT and the spoken word is even more difficult to detect. Another way to study intersensory fimetioning is to provide input conflicts between two sense modalities. Witkin et al. measured the ability of subjects to use postural cues to per- ceive the vertical when the visual frame of reference was torted,'!" They found that young children were strongly in- fluenced by visual “field” cues and were thus field dependent. By age 10, however, children showed a dramatic shift away from the early field dependence, attending more to propri- oceptive, kinesthetic, or vestibular postural cues rather than to the distorted visual cues, After age 17, Witkin et al, noted a slight reverse toward field dependence. Other conflicting- input experiments involving visual-kinesthetic (finger position) distortion and yisual-touch (size) distortions in 9- through 18- year-olds indicate a developmental trend toward more accu- rate judgment in the face of conflicting input." Teaching Implications Since children are different from adults in level of perceptual development, the teacher should be aware of the perceptual difficulties that environmental settings and movement expe- riences may pose for children in the gymnasium. To help young children perceive boundaries, for example, lines should be wide and of contrasting colors. The number of lines should be minimal to avoid a perceptually confusing array of intersec- tions. Boundaries of working space should be clearly marked with distinetive shapes, such as rubber highway cones spaced closely enough so that the “line” is easily seen. Young children may not notice “open” space while moving or even when stopped, They need guided experience in “seeing” and thenDEVELOPING CHILDREN— open space away from walls, equipment, and other ‘esearch available on intersensory integration suggests Amportance of multiple approaches to presenting tasks or _in helping young children understand an organizational plan. “example, the teacher can use a visual cue, such as moving, the space set aside for work with balls, while also verbally ig that work-space location. When talking, the spatial Orientation of the teacher to the child is also an important way to facilitate an accurate verbal-visual match. The teacher, for example, should face in the same direction as the child when demonstrating a hop on the right foot if the child is going to be asked to try to hop on the right foot. Faci ing children forees them to reverse the input information—a difficult task even for adults, Sometimes the dren to detect thi planned movement experience requires chil- e differing sounds of a hard or softly kicked teacher's voice. In these cases, the teacher must help the child attend to that contrasting sound among the many background sounds that usually filla physical education setting. Some chil- dren may needa relatively quiet area off the gymnasium where they can have the ‘opportunity to attend easily to the wanted sound without the distraction of irrelevant background noise. This suggestion applies to discrimination in other sense mo- dalities; for example, ke ping the visual environment “uns cluttered!” or having the children close their eyes to concen trate on the feel ofa particular movement. Trabasso noted that the effective design of learning environments requires both an impoverishment of the environment by eliminating poten- ally irrelevant stimuli and an enrichment of the environment by filling it with attention-getting cues of maximum vividness. and interest.’ ball striking a wall, or the rhythm of a drum beat, or the THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 17 PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT The area of personality development and social interactions covers many aspects of children's behavior Three are espe- cially relevant to physical education, The first is the moral development of children—the growth of their concept of right and wrong. Usually, moral development is considered part of the socialization process, i-e., the internalization of external social mores, Indeed, in different societies, children do show more of the moral behaviors characteristic of their society's expectations as they move toward adulthood. Kohlberg, how- ever, is a developmental psychologist who tried to get beneath behavior to find out what children thought was moral, He presented children with an intriguing set of story situations in which obedience to legal-social rules or to authority conflicted with human needs, The following is a paraphrase of one of these stories: A man's wife is dying of cancer, but the only town druggist is asking an impossible price for the drug that might help he: The man tries all means to raise the money, fails, and finally breaks in to steal the drug, Should the man have done this? Why? From children’s discussion of the reasons for their answers (rather than the answers themselves), Kohlberg has detected six stages of moral development.:! He feels that the stages result from the children’s internal reorganization of their so- ciety’s basic prohibitions and commands. Just as Piaget says that the child “knows” the same world differently at different stages, so Kohlberg believes that the child ors es society's moral rules differently at different stages. Since the moral stages result from this reorganization of the environment rather than from the environment “stamping in” its commands, Kohlberg has predicted that the stages would be culture-free.*! Indeed, when children from the United States, Mexico, Tai-B DEVELOPING CHILDRI I Turkey were tested using stories appropriate to theit the same stages of moral reasoning occurred. Kohl- gests that this happens because the structures of so- amily, social stratification, law, and government—have un il functional meanings, despite different content in ferent societies. Kohiberg’s Stages of Moral Development Kohlberg’s six stages appear within three levels of devel- opment. LEVEL 1. PRE-MORAL. The child responds to cultural labels of right and wrong, good and bad, but interprets these labels in terms of the: physical or hedonistic consequences of action or the physical power of the rule-giver. Stage 1, Punishment and Obedience. The goodness of an action is. determined solely in terms of its physical conse= quences. Stage 2. Naive Instrumental Hedonism. Right action is de~_ termined by what satisfies one’s own needs and, occasionally, those of another, Reciprocity is a pragmatic “You seratch my back and I'll scratch yours.”” LEVEL2, CONVENTIONAL ROLE-CONFORMITY. The child Perceives the maintenance of family, group, or national ex Peetations as valuable in their own right regardless of conse sieces The attitude reflects both conformity and active loy> ty. Stage 3. “Good Boy—Nice Girl.” Good behavior is that which pleases others. It is frequently judged by intention: “He meant we Stage 4. “Law and Order,” Right behavior is oriented to- es authority, fixed rules, and maintenance of the social order. LEVEL 3. SELF-ACCEPTED MORAL PRINCIPLES. The THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 19 adult tries to formulate moral values that have validity apart from the groups holding the values. Stage 5. Social Contract, Democratically Accepted Law: Right action is defined in terms of individual rights and stand- ards agreed upon by the whole society. Personal values are seen as relative, so emphasis is on the “legal point of view,” but includes the possibility of changing the law. Stage 6. Universal Ethical Principle. Right action is a de- cision of conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical princi- ples appealing to logical comprehensiveness, universality, and consistency. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER FACTORS While the same stages appear in the same order in various cultures, the age at which they appear may differ slightly. In the United States, 10-year-old children operate predominately at the lower stages and 13-year-olds at the middle stages. Stages 5 and 6 are not reached until adulthood, if they are reached at all. A parallel exists between these moral stages and Piaget's cognitive stages since moral reasoning (rather than behavior) is their focus, Kohlberg has found that a certain cognitive stage is required for each of the levels of moral reasoning, Being in that cognitive stage, however, does not guarantee that the child will also have the parallel moral stage. For instance, all Level 3 subjects must have formal operations, but many people having formal operations are not at Level 3 in moral reason- ing.® While middle-class children seem to move through the stages faster and farther than lower-class children, religion does not affect their moral reasoning. No differences have been found among Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Moslems, or atheists. The concept of God may be employed in any of the stages, but it will be employed in accord withDEVELOPING CHILDREN— stage, Kohlberg says that a Stage 2 child good to God and He'll be good to you.” the course of reacting to Kohiberg’s moral conflict situ- ations, about 45% of a child’s responses are in the dominant stage; the rest of the responses arc in the next higher or next lower stage or in stages adjacent to those.** Thus, moral rea- soning usually shows vestiges of the stage one has just moyed from and intimations of the stage to which one may move. ‘This fact has implications for the teacher. For instance, Rest, Turiel, and Kohlberg have found that people comprehend all stages below their own but not more than one above their own.* They tend to prefer the highest stage they can com- prehend, although they restate that stage in terms of their own. moral reasoning, Teachers who try to resolve conflicts when children feel they have been “wronged” in a game or by @ Peer are probably wasting time if they appeal to lofty ethical Principles. Children who want to hit the person who hit them (Stage 2) have ditficulty accepting the teacher's Stage 5 or 6 , appeal to “turn the other cheek,” The research suggests that reasoning with a child at one stage higher than the child's stage would be a more usefuul procedure. Since movement to the next moral stage is assumed to be the result of active interactions between the child and the Social environment, Blatt and Kohlberg have attempted to Promote moral development through a 4-month discussion Program with I1- through 15-year-old children.” As the chile dren actively discussed and sometimes argued hypothetic moral dilemmas, the teacher clarified Stage 3 arguments but refuted arguments below Stage 3, When the children seemed to understand Stage 3, the teacher began to challenge that thinking and to support and clarify Stage 4 arguments. As @ result, half the children advanced one stage in their moral ‘THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 21 thinking. 10% moved up two stages, and the rest remained the same. In a nontaught control group, 90% of the children remained the same, and 10% adyanced one stage. Rather than waiting for skirmishes within the gymnasium, the teacher can try to foster moral development by discussing common social conflicts with the children before they occur, “Right action” for problems, such as what to do if someone takes your ball, your turn on the equipment, keeps infringing on your work space, cheats on your agreed-upon game rules, or wastes the class's time, can be discussed. By listening, the physical educator would learn much about the children’s level of moral reasoning and could help them understand the next higher level. At the same time, the gymnasiun rules and their reasons would be established by the teacher and children to- gether Aggressive Behavior One source of frequent social-moral conflicts in the class- room and the gymnasium is aggressive children. Little infor- mation is available on the development of aggressive behavior, that is, the changing transformations that occur within chil- dren's patterns of aggression as they grow older, Most of our information is about the relationship of aggressive behavior to other factors, such as parental discipline and gender. For in- stance, in examining the environment of the aggressive child, Hoffman has distinguished three types of parental discip] (1) power assertion, which uses physical punishment, dep vation of material objects or privileges, or the threat of either; (2) love-withdrawal, which includes direct nonphysical expre sions of the parents’ disapproval, such as ignoring or isolating the child; and (3) induction, in which the parent explains to the child the reasons for requiring a change of hehavior.*! For children old enough to understand the reasoning, induction plus the presence of affectionate parents correlates most highlyDEVELOPING CHILDREN— on the other hand, consistently correlates with more © behavior on the part of the child. It is theorized by physically punishing the child, the parent acts as an - aggressive model that the child imitates. This modeling theory ofaggression is supported by several studies in which children j more aggressive behaviors after seeing an adult act aggressively. Interestingly, aggressive children tend to direct their aggression toward adults outside the home and toward ‘Peers rather than toward their parents. On the other hand, several studies have been able to predict from the first or second year of life certain behavioral disorders of later childhood, such as acting out or antisocial activity.” Since not all infants with the predictive symptoms develop these disorders, an important factor seems to be the parents’ response to the child's behavior. Aggression is also related to gender. In animal studies, the male hormone testosterone promotes aggressive behavior in female sesrbom s and young monkeys." In humans, boys seem to be more physically aggressive; girls tend to use more ii indirect forms of aggression.22 A o Itseems that aggressive behavior cannot be attributed com- pletely to modeling or constitutional factors, Children predis- Posed to aggression are more likely to imitate aggressive models.* Thus, the relationships between aggression and fac- tors such as gender and parental discipline cannot be viewed as cause and effect. Personality and social development result from the interactive process between each child and the er vironment. Teaching Implications Helping children to control physical aggression is a frequent responsibility of teachers. One classic study of aggression by Lewin etal. looked at 10-year-old boys under different teach- ‘internalized moral behavior. Parental power THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 23 ing methods.® The authors worked with the boys in activity clubs, making masks, carving soap, and constructing model airplanes. The clubs rotated adult leaders who used authori- tarian, democratic, or laissez-faire methods, In the authoritarian treatment, the adult leader determined all policy. He dictated the tasks to be done and children’s work companions. Within a task, all techniques and activity steps were designed by the leader. While the adult praised or erit- icized the work of each child, he remained aloof from active group participation In the laissez-faire treatment, the boys had complete free- dom over what and how they were to proceed in their projects. Various materials were supplied by the leader, but he took no part in work discussions. The leader gave no directions, rarely commented on any individual's activities, and madeno attempt to interfere with any of the boys’ behavior. The democratic conditions included having all policies de- termined through group diseussion, which was guided and encouraged by the leader. The adult also sketched the general steps toward the group's goal. When technical advice was needed, he suggested two or three alternative procedures. Members worked with whomever they chose. The division of tasks was left up to the group. The leader tried to criticize individuals objectively and to participate as part of the group. Observers recording all social interactions among the boys found that the authoritarian atmosphere spawned either high or low levels of aggression. In the high-aggressive groups, the members developed a pattern of dominance toward one an- other while either submitting to the adult leader or constantly demanding his attention. Scapegoating became so prevalent that the persecuted children finally dropped out of the clubs. The low-aggressive groups under authoritarian leadership were described as dull and lifeless, No joking, little smiling, and little freedom of movement about the room occurred. These boys, however, tended to have an overflow of aggression‘conditions, aggressive behavior was also high. d atic conditions, the aggressive actions were e in humber but more than in the low aggressive, group. | other studies have indicated that authoritarian s can lower overt aggressive behavior among children, _ but that aggression tends to show up somewhere else. Some. Physical education programs have employed methods similar ‘to the authoritarian ones used in the Lewin et al, study.®" The results of that study suggest, however, that the more demo- cratic atmosphere with its options, participatory decision-mak- ing, and guided control by the teacher gives a healthier balance to control of azeression in youngsters. Coupling this approach with inductive efforts directed toward the child's moral stage ‘when aggression does occur would provide a more wholesome, normal atmosphere within the gymnasium-classroom, Competitive and Cooperative Behavior A third aspect of psychosocial development relevant to the teacher of movement is the growth of competitive and coop- erative behavior. Successful participation as a team member in competitive games requires a conscious effort to play as part ofa group. Thus, the child must cooperate in order to compete. In many physical education programs, even in the primary grades, competitive games play a dominant role. An implicit assumption in such programs is that children at all develop- mental levels know how to and will choose to cooperate in order to compete successfully A series of between-age and between-culture studies of the cooperative and competitive behavior of children by Madsen and associates is of interest in examining this question. In table games designed to bring aut cooperative or competitive THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 25 behavior, pairs of 5- to 10-year-old children were given the option in each game of competing and risking the loss of a prize, cooperating and sharing prizes, or cooperating and each receiving a prize, One of the games used was the Marble-Pull Game (Fig. 1A), In this game, a plastic block that breaks apart is placed ona small table, Each end of the block is attached to a string, The center of the block contains a marble. The object of the game is to pull on the block, without losing the marble, until the center of the block is over the target point. This permits the marble to fall into the hole in front of either child. Ifa child chooses to compete by pulling on the string, the block breaks apart and both children lose the prize. They can decide to cooperate, however, and share the prize. In experiments using this game, Nelson found that in the conflict-of-interest situation (only one prize per game) chil- dren, regardless of age, chose to compete even though they both lost the prize. Nelson assumed that finding ways to cooperate so that prizes could be shared might be too difficult for 5-year-old children, but he questioned why the older chil- dren would continue irrationally to compete. To explore this problem, he modified the Madsen Cooperation Board Game.* In this game, each child had two strings which affected the movement of a plastic pointer on a board having three target circles (Fig. 1B). The children could choose to compete by Pulling the strings simultaneously. This resulted in a stalemate with both losing the prize. They could also cooperate, together maneuvering the pointer to the middle target, with a resulting Prize for each child in each game, Mutual assistance was the only way the pointer could be placed over the middle target, In this experiment, as in the Marble-Pull Game, the younger children tended to compete rather than to cooperate. With a Prize for each child for successful teamwork, however, 8 to ‘old children cooperated on almost all trials These findings were also supported in other table games in whichFig, 1.A. Marble-Pull Game. ‘00 one end of the string at the from the separated block rolls ‘one child releases one end block to one end of ‘The plastic block pulls apart if each chald polls same time (competition). The marble released into a groove on the side of the game board. of the string, the other child may’ pull the intact the game board, permitting the marble to drop in the THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 27 Fig.l. Cont.B. Madsen Cooperation Board Game. The center plastic sarker will not move to either end of the board ifthe two end strings are pulled by the children with equal pressure simultaneously (competition). The pointer «an be pulled to one end of the board over the target circle at that end ifone child is stronger than the other (competition). The children can coordinate their pulls on each of the strings on the side toward the middle right circle and at the same time refrain from pulling the strings on the opponite side, ‘This will permit the players to maneuver the plastic center marker over middle right cirele (cooperation). (Redrawn from Nelson, L., and Kagen, S.- Competition: The star-spangled scramble, Psychology Today. 64)53, 1972 Reprinted by permission of the American Psychological Association.)DEVELOPING CHILDREN— ‘manipulated between a single prize per game : ee a prize for both children per game mn option). se situations, as well as in “real-life” situations, co- required problem solving, thinking, joint planning, execution of planned moves. The investigators con rom the second experiment that the capacity to co- ‘increased from ages 5 to 10; but surprisingly, this increased capacity was not used by alder children in conflict ‘of interest situations like those of the first experiment. Rather, the single prize games evoked irrationally competitive hehay- ior that interfered with the demonstrated problem-solving ability of the 8- to 10-year olds. Teaching Implications The contrast in the behavior of the children in the two ‘experimental situations should be of interest to physical ed- ucators. Since the results of the studies were obtained in two- Person games, they may not be entirely comparable to the demands of larger team games or other cooperative group Practices. Yet, many of the conditions that interfered with cooperative behavior were analogous to common physical ed- ucation environments. For example, single-prize, conflict-of- interest situations are: part of programs that stress single win- ners and best performer standards. Such situations may in- terfere with a child’s perception of success in the class. Despite the teacher's stated goals of cooperation and teamwork, the child may see only the implicit goals of winning or being first in achievement tasks ‘These studies on cooperative and competitive behavior il {strate how difficult itis for children to shift from self-centered to other-centered social goals. For example, deciding to share or pass a ball to a teammate rather than keep the ball (prize) to oneself is a decision that taxes many children. It is especially THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 29 difficult to lea to share, to appreciate others’ capabilities, and to want to help others improve their skills in an environ- ment that stresses winning or being best. Even skillful children may at times deliberately make a peer miss with an inaccurate throw or a shift of the hoop as their partner is moving through it. Simply telling the child to share, or asking the child to throw. the ball sq that the partner can catch it, may be ine fectual if the young child sees the partner as a rival rather than a helper. These studies show that we cannot assume that chil- dren will know how to and will choose to cooperate in group activities. Their developmental level, the complexity of the situation, and the stress on conflict-oF-interest goals influence their ability to meet the demands involved in a cooperative effort. COOPERATIVE CULTURES What then of the commonly held belief that the competitive spirit is deeply ingrained in the nature of man? The Madsen and associates conflict-of-interest and rivalry studies seem to support this view. However, they have also observed the com- petitive behavior of pairs of children from rural Mexico. rural Canada, and an Israeli kibbutz under experimental conditions similar to those previously cited for the urban children. “™** The children from cultures where daily living stressed coop eration rather than competition tended to cooperate and share prizes even under the single prize, conflict-of-interest condi= tion, In a rivalry experimental situation, far fewer rural than urban children of similar ethnic backgrounds chose to take toys away from peers. The investigators noted that in some rural cultures the cooperative pendulum may have swung too far. The children showed irrationally cooperative beha vior to the point of excessive submission in the face of opposition.n table game, laboratory settings has provided its into the cee behavior of children. , is that by design such games require ‘onal behavior. Yet, multiple interment and Fapersonal factors could account for children's cooperative “competitive behavior in physical education game settings AS indicated earlier, competitive games have traditionally played a dominant role in elementary school physical educa Programs. Teachers have apparently assumed all children are equally comfortable in. competition so the competitive ex- Ever will be a positive one for them. The investigations ef Solomons, Scanlan, and Scanlan and Passer are of interest in considering these assumptions, 1 Solomons studied how sex roles and perceived ability af- fected the cooperative and competitive behavior of fifth grade children in physical education games.** The children had been in sex-integrated physical education classes throughout their elementary years, Solomons assessed the children's degree of oe and their throwing and catching ability both in ae Pencomb and in an individual game emphasizing oe rae and catching skill used in Neweomb. She Pann {at boys matle over twice as many attempts to catch due, (ines eee as many eee catches, and received muny passes as did girls. Boys also leay 0, fl ad alle scat en tes sag eee Following these initial studies, Solomons formed four- fon teams which combined high-ability girls with low-ability boys and high-ability boys with low-abi ity girls. She devised z game for the children that stressed indiv idual catching and Sosa accurate throwing. In the game, each child had a total Opportunities to score by throwing the ball at a target, oF to pass the ball to another member of the same team. The THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 31 person to whom the ball was passed could either try to score or also pass the ball to another teammate. In this situation, the highest ability girls gave away twice as many chances to score as the highest ability boys; in turn, high-ability boys received twice as many passes as high-ability girls. Girls who were the second highest ability players on their teams received fewer passes than boys who were the lowest ability players. Thus, low-ability boys were seen by other boys and girls as higher in ability than girls who were considerably more able than they. Girls, even of high ability, responded differently to competition than boys and were treated differently in the competition by both boys and girls. ‘The effects of competition depend not only on interpersonal factors but also on intrapersonal ones. A competitive experi- ence in games may be perceived by the child as personally enhancing or personally threatening. If the latter, the com- petition may cause the child to have a high level of anxiety. Ina series of studies, Scanlan and Scanlan and Passer* used established psychological scales to assess the pre- and postgame anxiety of 11- to 12-year-old boys and 10- to 12-year~ old girls in competitive soccer. The investigators found that players who tended to be more anxious about competitive situations, who had low selfesteem, and who expected their team and themselves to perform poorly perceived greater per- sonal threat and higher pregame anxiety than those who were less anxious about competitive situations, had high self-es- teem, and who expected their teams and themselves to per form well. Scanlan and Passer also found that postgame anxiety was markedly affected by the experience of winning and losing: Losing players evidenced substantially greater postgame anx- iety than winning players even when differences in competi- tive trait anxiety and pregame state anxiety measures: were statistically equalized. Also, when pregame and postgame anx- iety scores were compared, losing players demonstrated a sig-DEVELOPING CHILDREN— ' pregame to postgame anxiety. Wit marked decrease in anxiety. i fidence in their own ability to meet the requirements games was a factor both in the behavigr of the dren in Solomons’ study‘! and in the Precompetition level Gtanxiety ofchildren in the Scanlan and Passer" investigations. Also, Scanlan and Passer noted that losers in competitive fumes experienced increased postgame competitive anxiety. Rather than building their confidence, participation in games/ Sports can be demoralizing for some children. They receive Bptver be signals when teammates lack the confidence to pass 2 2 the ball. They experience social pressure “for the good the team” to give up their own chances to score by passing to players judged to be better. These children are caught in a ounterprodactive cycle. They lack confidence in their own ; ty to meet the needs of the competitive game, yet the sign of the game is such that those who most need to practice to improve their skills receive the least practice. aoe Roberton® argue that while teachers intend to r developmental progress, the competitive situations pe Hise may cause some children’s skills to regress rather oe pores They suggest that, within one class, children , Sancune t. ee oe same skills in either cI fe mar vat is, one smi nay ofehidren may be using striking skilh"tolkecoshe ball eee Another group in the same class may be using the same striking skills to try to make the other side “miss.” They suggest that children should gradually merge cooperative group work into competitive practice as they feel both th sire for additional challenge, s i keep the ball going.” THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 33 CHANGING CONCEPTS OF “GAMES” Riley and Roberton’s views® parallel the developmental ap- proach to games teaching that is proposed by Mauldon and Redfern.” In their insightful book, the authors stress the im- portance of recognizing that the concept of “game” changes through childhood according to the child’s interests and phys- ical, cognitive, and moral development. They note that the young child will play 4 “game” alone auch aw a ball bounene game, Even when playing with a ball in a group of three children, the “game” will be more a game of “three ones” than “one three.” The authors note that the exploratory play ppat- terns of young children still extend into later group play, and that older children design theirown game patterns when given the opportunity, At this level of game development, their games are not contests involving elaborate rules or a high level of cooperative behavior. Rather, they are tests of their own ability with the help of a partner or group. At this point, competition against another team is nat stressed, While chil- dren 10 through 12 years old hecome increasingly interested in games with rules, they continue to design their own version of named games, such as basketball or volleyball, unless pressed to play specific adult-designed games. The cooperation demands to keep the game going may become more complex, however, and interest in competing against other teams in- creases CHILD-DESIGNED GAMES Riley has subjectively observed the game choice, des and participation of fith- and sixth-grade urban ehildren in physical education environment." These children had partic- ipated in physical education classes in which the climate for learning, was structured to let individuals work at their own rate, feel free to make mistakes in the process of becomingDEVELOPING CHILDREN— ‘increasingly independent as lean ty to make decisions, with guidance in the i kis ted a choice of alternatives were of environment, Development of games coop- ‘planned by the teacher and child plus child-designed, | game ‘were emphasized. a that the 10- through 12-year-old children in 1g did not choose the competitive situations assumed "4 great part of the “needs” of middle elementary school r, they chose cooperative situations in which 5) small groups 6 ree or four, and they sought others of ability. The children chose games that permitted the ia a vet than one piece of equipment, e.g,, two players, halls: They also named a game only if asked, and they Pate it a simple name like “the striking game,” They would ep Score also only when asked, and then they tended to Seote by subtraction. With or without a score. they rarel Aonounced a wine, oe Ibis clear from these observations that the class cl environment do have « great influence in "htong’ athe se to oo and to define competition at their own Beppe level. Freed from adult-imposed competitive “ss and’ given alternative choices for cooperative and com- : are not suggestiny Hat children\will not and do not like to compete. We ace Suggest i lggesting that competitive needs and readiness patterns in child: ae are also developmental and should be viewed in that ART DEVELOPMENT At one time or another, the developmental changes that Orcurim children's art have been interpreted to reflect almost THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 35 every action system discussed thus far. Some writers have studied children’s drawings to deduce their stage of cognitive development; others have attempted a psychosocial portrayal from children’s art work; still others have thought children’s pictures revealed their level of perceptual awareness. Some validity lies in all these approaches, for children’s artis clearly a perceptual-motor skill used to communicate subjectively or objectively thoughts, percepts, and feelings. For this reason, we shall use children’s art both to close our overview of the developing child and to preview the world of childhood move- ment, which serves in this case as a tool for the child’s ex- pressive self, The perspective we shall take is that of Rhoda Kellogg. +” She argues that art is more than a reflection of cognition, perception, or personality; rather, it primarily reflects the child’s aesthetic development. Rather than learning to draw by copying what they see, Kellogg claims children draw and then begin to see forms in what they have created. Stages in Self-Taught Art From studying thousands of children’s pictures in her role a8 a preschool educator, Kellogg has identified several stages in selEtaught art. STAGE |. PLACEMENT. By age 2, children begin to scribble spontaneously if the proper environment (paper, crayon, pen= cil) is provided. The movement of hand and arm as well as: their resulting product give the child great satisfuction, but did intention precede that artistic product. The motor 1g result solely by virtue of the hand and arm movements available to the Children have no prior knowledge of what this result will be, but when they are fin- ished they see a product they begin to remember: Kellogg quotes one child who, when asked what she was drawing, said How do I know until E have finished?”®anae BABS DEVELOPING CHILDREN— Kellogg has identified 20 basic scribbles (Fig. 2), which no doubt correlate highly with the muscular actions available to the child’sarm. As children perceive their scribbling, aesthetic considerations already come into play, since they show pre- ferred patterns in how they place their scribbles on the paper (Fig, 2), AIL 17 placement patterns identified by Kelloge ap- Pear in the drawings of children by about age 3. Tong before children can draw a shape in outline form, shapes will be implied in their scribbles. Roundness hints at eireles yet to come; X's and crosses emerge out of oblique horizontal, and vertical lines purposefully or accidentally col- liding. Again, the children perceive these shapes after they have drawn them. STAGE 2. SHAPE. Three-year-olds will begin to outline the shapes they have seen and remembered from their own work These outlines or diagrams are less than perfectly executed to an adult, but to the child they are aesthetically pleasing. Adults may try at this time to give representational meaning to the child's outlines, but they are basically still the child's artistic building blocks for later, conscious representation STAGE 3, DESIGN. As children expand their repertoire of diagrams, they begin to put two together into a design. When two diagrams are united, Kellogg calls the resulting design “combine.” When three or more are put together, the design is an “aggregate.” Again, the child's motivation is aesthetic. Designs are created because they look balanced and pleasing One combine, the circle or square with a cross in it (Fig. 3) is called a mandala. Common even in prehistoric art, the man- dalais frequently drawn because of its aesthetic appeal, From it, Kellogg believes children proceed to draw suns and the human figure in universally sirnilar ways, STAGE 4. PICTORIAL. When children's designs become rec- egnizable to adults, the children have entered the pictorial stage. Early pictorial works are only suggestive of trees or animals. Most drawings of humans done by pre-6-year olds THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 39 Rif, ch, The Mandala. This is the finger paint of -yearold. (Fsom Cnet, Fine O'Dell, §.: The Psycholay of Childrens Ast Del Mats (clfornia, CRM-Random House, 1967. Reprinted by permission 0 = legs radiating from ig design w the basic mandala form with a 4 large, circular body, more to conform with pleas iter Prneiples than accuraey of depiction. If the picture looks a litle off-center, an’ extra radial will be added, not Dae People have three arms but because the pieture “needs i When human ears get placed on top of the head for sacle an adult says, “Oh, that's a horse,” and the child agrees. AsDEVELOPING CHILDREN— ‘objects in children’s pictures and the that certain objects do, indeed, re- . they move toward representational the pictorial stage. Six-year olds have this final level of self-taught art. is period, interesting deviations from reality occur child may be trying to portray a “real picture. Id® has pointed out three common deviations at this A) size exaggeration of important parts of the picture, lect or omission of unimportant parts of the picture, and (3) shape changes in emotionally significant parts of the Picture. For instance, he describes a picture entitled “Search- ing for the Lost Pencil.” The child drow the searching, reach- ing arms longer than the entire rest of the searcher's body. The hand groping for the pencil is pencil-shaped. A second Picture shows the retrieved pencil being inserted in the search- ers pocket. The other hand, no longer involved in the story, has shrunk to only a stub extending from the shoulder, Teaching Implications Kellogg's strong message for parents and teachers is to en- ‘courage rather than interrupt children’s self-taught art. Chil- dren are active producers of art rather than passive copiers. Yet, having children color books with pre-drawn outlines or ing to copy. Their own art may appear inaclequate in their eyes when, in fact, it is an aesthetic production of some accomplishment. Teachers of movement can capitalize on the common aes- theties of art and human movement by encouraging earl Pictorial children to draw their experiences in movement: Not what they or others “looked like” but, rather, pictures of their Pathways through space or their speed of motion. What color will Susan use to show “fast?” Let her contemplate and express THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 41 her total body movement in art—at her level of creation and enjoyment. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT Physical educators’ unique responsibility is to promote the motor development ofeach child. Although the in the child’s cognitive, perceptual, psychosocial, and artistic development with every other teacher in the school, they have y responsibility for the child's growth in the motor do- this reason, physical education teachers who believe in individualizing instruction must know how the motor system develops. This knowledge will help them interpret the move- ment they see, From that interpretation, they can decide whether and how to intervene in the child’s learning. The following discussion summarizes developmental infor- mation for a few dimensions within the Laban movement framework adopted for this book.” Research in motor devel- opment has not progressed to the level of research in other action systerns. No one, for instance, has attempted to identify overall stages of motor development, such as Piaget did for Cognition. Instead, what are available are developmental se- quences that describe the order of changes both within motor tasks or skills and between skills. When a motor development sequence focuses on the changes that occur within a given skill until that skill is mastered, the sequence is called an intra- task (or skild) sequence. When the sequence is made up of different skills ordered along a time span, it is called an inter- task (or skill) sequence. We will begin our discussion of motor, development by describing the inter-task sequence associated with foot locomotion, Oddly enough, this seq) has not been verified by research. It is our best guess from the infor- mation available. In fact, few of the inter- and intra-task se= quences we describe are totally validated by research. Ne ‘dation is a lengthy process involving longitudinal study." WeDEVELOPING CHILDREN— do indicate, however, when the information we are sharing has been validated and when it is our best guess from our own and others’ observations while teaching children LOCOMOTION ON THE FEET This introduction to the world of motor development begins with locomotion, which is such an important part of the child's bustling life. Locomotion means to travel or to move from one Place to another. Most people think of traveling just on the feet, but there are many forms of locomotion, using other body Parts as well, e.g., rolling, crawling, climbing, and scooting, Children use every form they can for the sheer pleasure of moving and exploring their world. This discussion covers dée- velopmental changes in both types of travel, beginning with locomotion on the feet. Foot Pattern Development The problem of shifting, projecting, and receiving weight to'and from the feet in progressively more difficult situations Presents a complex challenge to the young child, There can be only five ways to transfer weight on the feet: from one foot to the same foot, one foot to the other foot, one foot to two feet, two feet to two feet, and two feet to one foot. From these five types, however, come the many temporal and spatial re- lationships found in locomotor forms, In these many relation- ships; each foot may perform just a single task, or it may perform more than one task before transferring the weight ta the other foot. For example, in walking, each foot completes single step before the weight transfer: whereas in skipping, each foot completes a step and ahap before the weight transfer In early development, the first transfer-of-weight patterns are single-task transfers from one foot to the other foot, from one foot to two feet, and two feet to two feet. As children try THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 43 c Fit. 4 Run and Leap--2 years, 10 months, the environs ullense {0 run, get over the rolled towels, and keep on runniis, un and leap, imspanied by restive arms,distance, they make increasing use t from one foot to the other foot, foot to two foot pattern, Next to emer transfers of weight from one foot to the two fect to one foot. These transfer patterns. tial strength and balance. Also emerging at this level of development are foot patterns re- each foot to complete two tasks before the weight r to the other foot. “The pattern of one foot to the other foot observed in walking is the first single-task pattern to emerge and is a. common ‘element in the locomotor tasks that follow: For example, the run evolves from the fast walk, and the ru n-and-leap evolves from a little extra push-off in one step of the run. The latter is, therefore, an early-appearing combination of two locomotor tasks (Fig. 4).2 Continuous leaping, although an alternating foot pattern, does not appear until much later in development. In fact, this task remains difficult even for adults, Another. difficult one foot to one foot relationship is the hop (transfer of weight from one foot to the same foot). Hopping seldom emerges before the age of 3" and, even then, is often a momentary single hop on _ the preferred foot. The challenge within the continuous leap or hop is to receive the weight in landing, absorh it smoothly, and again project from the landing foot—a feat that demands considerable strength, balance, and timing. In early locomotion, an exception to the use of one foot to the other foot is the two-foot bounce jump. A two-foot bounce Jump is a repetitive bouncing movement that covers little ver= tical or horizontal distance and requires little force for projec- tion. Once discovered, this form of jumping becomes a game that is repeated time and again, sometimes fram low boxes oF THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 45 steps, sometimes over obstacles, and most often “just moving around.” The two-foot jump for distance from a stationary start is developmentally more complex, In any off-balance position, such as the take-off in the jump for distance, there is a strong tendency to step out automatically with one foot ta stop the forward fall. This tendency to use the alternating foot pattern is difficult to inhibit. When the off-balance forward lean at take-off is minimal, as in the two-foot bounce jump, young children can refrain from stepping out with one foot. As the forward lean inereases, it becomes more and more difficult for them to inhibit the stepping tendeney:® Thus, in the early levels of the standing long jump or of jumping from heights, children typically shift from two fect to stepping out with one foot as they fall off balance. When the goal is to caver maximal distance, either horizontally or vertically, young children al- most always add a run, or at least one step, before taking off from the other foot. Young children rarely attempt a vertical jump from two feet although they ean projeet upward for a minimal distance ina stretched position. For example, a 2- or 3-year-old might use: vertical jump to follow a ball thrown into the air, Poe found iat a balloon held overhead, accompanied by verbal chal- lenge of “Can you jump and touch the balloon?” elicited ely levels of a vertical stretch jump in 16 of 22 two-year-olds. COMBINING SINGLE-TASK PATTERNS In general, just two combinations of locomotor tasks are observed in early development: the run-and-leap on ley obstacles or for short distances and the fami ee ea of the early gaflop, Each involves only a single task per but exich foot does something different. If the right foot is # the lead in the gallop, itis the “walk” foot, and the ee the “leap” foot throughout the gallop. While the gallop= DEVELOPING CHILDREN— ‘May appear as early as 2 years of age, ferred foot docs not come until later® Va sideward direction also uses a step on one foot ‘other, but it appears much later than the ince the body faces a different direction from the one ‘itis moving, the slide is more difficult to control. early slide usually becomes a gallop, with the feet @ in the direction of the movement and the upper torso at right angles trying to maintain the different facing DOUBLE-TASK PATTERNS Skipping combines a walk and a hop, but it requires each foot to accomplish both tasks before transferring the weight to the other foot. The pattern has an uneven rhythm, with the step taking longer than the hop. While some children may manage a skip by the age of 4," many reach only an early level ofskipping by age 7, A step-and-hop in even rhythm is another locomotor form requiring each foot to perform two tasks. Con- trary to what one might predict, it is more difficult for the child to perform this even-rhythm pattern than the uneven thythm of the step and hop in the skip. The even rhythm Tequites the child to receive the weight, hold back and balance for the duration of the beat, and then project the body into theair. Holding back, balancing, and projecting require mave- ment control and strength. Thus, the even-rhythm step-and- ‘op, so much a part of many dance forms, does not appear until well into primary school years. INTER-TASK SEQUENCE FOR FOOT LOCOMOTION To summarize this discussion, we will hypothesize an inter= task sequence for eight common forms of foot locomotion: Obviously, an “hypothesized” sequence has not been vali — dated. We will order the skills according to the time when THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 47 primitive forms of each skill might make their first par in achild’s repertoire. We stress the word primitive,” whi is used in development to mean “early level. " Although prim= itive forms of a task may appear when a child is rather young. the child will not necessarily soon be skillful in that task. A primitive form of the overarm throw, for instance, may Mee when a child is sitting in a high chair, but that throw val nt finish developing until the same child is in high sell a Because walking lacks a moment of Aight, of all the ot lacoinotor tasks it is the most stable and least comune strength. For this reason, walking is the first ee kee task to appear in children’s repertoires, usually by the Bot Year fnot before. Running is probably the nest te scat pe a single leap (Fig, 4), jumping (down and bones aa loping coming soon after, although we are unsure of the om Then the hop appears, first on the dominant foot, later oe nondominant foot, When at least a primitive hop can oe formed on each foot, the skip can occur, Sicleways sallopitle or sliding usually differentiates from forward galloping at this time also, -_ In their play and practice, children will feauently SU locomotor forms that appear earlier in the ir ae uence for those they cannot yet perform. | i hae observer can often estimate a child's location ie pee Sequence by studying these substitutions. For insittrts Ne shildren cannot jump down, they will step down, Vite cannot hop, they will often bounce jump. ee See skip will gallop. Those who cannot jump for distant jently substitute Intra-Task Development Much better studied than the inter! locomotion are the intra-task sequences comator skills. We will examine the speci in children’s Hoeeriail ‘as they attempt such ti foot rusk sequence for for ialvidual Foot > fie changes that oeeur asks as hopping4 Poot $678 9 0 1 0s 6 ‘Age in Years Johnson, W. (ed.): Science and {and Sports. New York, Harper & Row, 1960, as modified sand Eckert, Hs Ohio, Johnson and 1974 by E.R. Buskirk, Permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.) and discuss how to look for these changes in the children we are teaching. First, a few comments about intra-task devel- opment, CROSS-SECTIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL PERFORM: ANCE DATA. Traditionally, the changes that occurred in spe- cific motor tasks, such ax hopping, were studied by looking at how children’s performance scores changed as they yrew older. Figure 5 is a sample graph of how the performance scores for the standing long jump differ across the ages 5 to 17 years, Since the graph compares children of different ages, itis called @ cross-sectional graph, Most of our performance score infor- ‘THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 49 mation takes this cross-sectional form. Far fewer studies have followed the same children over time to obtain longitudinal information. Thus, we have to infer from age differences the kind of curve we would get using data showing age change, Since longitudinal data show age changes directly, they are highly prized in developmental research. Figure 5, then, is a cross-sectional estimate of how boys and girls change in the distance they can long jump. While inter- 180 Pees Height in Centimeters 8 Ga Ta aS ‘Age in Years ? é ales and Females. (Prat Bs rf hst Changes in Hight for White Males and Female. (eos Be Benschade, A.. anel Eokert, Hs Motor Development. Coluu = mA Adapted from RLM. Malin, P-V'V. Hail and $B: Lemesbin sil Rimensions and Froportions: White and Nearo Children 6-11 Years LEVY. Hamil, &E. Jobnston, and S-E. Lemeshow Mody Weight, Sa: res. and Sitting Height: White and Negro Youths 13-17 Years. Washington, D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office, Series I (143,126), 1978DEVELOPING CHILOREN— ‘not very helpful in visualizing the body have also occurred as the child aged. i graphs of performance score changes similar to each other and to graphs of growth en during the same years (Fig. 6). Peterson, and Seefeldt suggested that up to 25% of the : between children’s performance scores may be re- differences in their linearity and weight. Their data re for kindergarten through second grade, but we ‘ould not be surprised if their findings were to hold true for children as well. Thus, performance scores leave it un- ar as to whether one is measuring motor development or MOVEMENT DESCRIPTION. A more direct way of charting the changes that occur in motor skills over time is to film children, then describe the changes verbally or quantitatively. Verbal descriptions will be used in this chapter since they are easier to visualize and since far more verbal than quantitative information is available. At the verbal level of analysis, recent research" suggests that development occurs ata partial pattern or body component level. That is, the notion of an intra-task sequence of devel- opment is more valid for parts of the body than for the body. asa whole, In the hop, for instance, a separate sequence will be noted for the action of the legs and for the action of the arms. These sequences are surprisingly independent. The level to which a child's arm action has progressed is not directly predictable from knowledge of that child’s level of leg action. Ofcourse, the early hopper will be at the most primitive levels in all components. Similarly, when children master the hop, they will have achieved the most advanced levels in both com- ponents. How they travel from primitive to advanced—which component develops when and how far in relation to other components—is somewhat particular to the individual. Two children passing through the component sequences may look THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 51 Quite different from each other, depending on the combination or profile of developmental levels they exhibit at any one time, The degree to which intra-task developmental sequences generalize across tasks is only beginning to be studied, so these sequences cannot be considered stage sequences anal- ogous to Piaget's cognitive stages, Therefore, levels within intra-task sequences are called steps as opposed to stages. Sometimes readers feel that the ordinal categories used to delineate steps imply that motor development is discontin- uous, with sudden changes occurring from one step to the next. with no transitional behavior. Observation of motor develop- ment confirms that development is not discontinuous. Each step phases in and out, overlapping with its neighbors. One way to see this overlapping or transitional behavior is to watch children perform a task across trials. On most of the trials they will show the same developmental level. That modal level is used to designate their developmental status. On a few trials, however, they may exhibit the next step toward which they are moving or the developmental step they have just left. Thus, their movement gradually consolidates into a developmental level and then, just as gradually, goes on toa new level. Truly transitional children may show approximately half their trials in one level and half in the next higher level. Another place transitional behavior has been observed is in skills such as the skip. Sometimes, a new developmental level Will be observed in one foot before the other foot, even though both feet will eventually show the behavior of the next de- *elopmental level. For instance, in advanced foot action in the skip (see Table 7) the child's heel never touches down. In the Preceding developmental level, the heel always touches down. Some children, however, will touch the heel down on one foot but not on the other They are in transition between levels 2 and 3. Final evidence for transitional behavior is movement that is hard to categorize beeause it is “almost” the next level. Instead of agonizing aver such a child's level of developmentveo" J DEVELOPING CHILDREN— rs should understand that usually ¥4;" Le., the child is in transition be- making the movement difficult to ca- ‘Movement is difficult even for those who have many years. It is a constant challenge to see what in various body components as a child performs task. Slow-motion film or videotape is a valuable aid erver learning to “see” movement, Ifit is not possible. yuse these tools, sequences of still pictures help in capturing ‘the action for study. After one has learned to see key char- ‘acteristics with these slow motion aids, the faster, “live action will be easier to assess, Whether slow motion or live action, the observer cannot see the whole movement of a complex skill at once.‘ To ‘aissess developmental steps within a motor task, the observer needs to first watch the child make several attempts at the task. This will provide an overall “feel” for the child's move- ment. Then the observer needs to turn attention to one com- Ponent ata time. While the components may be assessed in any order, it seems usefull for teachers to study the components in the order of their developmental importance, c.g., first the legs in locomotion, or first the trunk action in striking or throw ing. We will indieate this order of importance as we describe the developmental steps for various tasks Armed with this first strategy for observation,® the observer must also be familiar with the particular developmental levels she expects to see. It is impossible to “see” what one does not “know Therefore, pre-observation study of the definitions of cach developmental step and the decision rules for identi- fying that step is always necessary: Finally, prior to observing, one must decide where to stand THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 53 in order to see or, if working with film or videotape, what view to examine, Again, we will try to help with this choice as we diseuss the decision rules used for placing movement in different developmental categories. Ultimately, one learns to see intra-task development only’ through study and practice. The ease with which successful coaches and teachers seem to spot the movement character- istics of their athletes and students comes from years of hard work. Fortunately, the satisfaction of being able ta help chil- dren improve their movement because one could see what they were doing is well worth the effort, Recording Development in the Gymnasium Although observation is critical for the ongoing process of teaching—the minute to minute interactions with children in the gymnasium—eonscientions teachers will also devise some method of periodically recording children’s developmental sta- tus. This written record serves as a chart of individual chil- dren's progress during the year and may be the basis for pe- Tiodic home reports. To do this kind of record keeping in a nonfrustrating manner requires several additional strategies on the part of the teacher First of all, teachers should view developmental assessment ’S.an ongoing project, All children in the school do not need 'o be evaluated at once, Rather, they should be continually eviewed, a few at a time, throughout the school year, This Strategy keeps record keeping a constant but never over- whelming part of the teaching day. Secondly, the teacher needs to devise some form of check- lst, perhaps like the one in Table 1, or one contiining names fall the children for a given classroom. ® Whatewer its form. the checklist should require a minimuun of writing Finally, certain types of organization within the gymnasium °F out on the playground make it easier to use checklists whileys ‘Swing teg inactive “Step 3. Projected takeoff; ‘Swing leg assists ‘Step 4. Projection delay; ‘Swing leg leads ‘Movement Component: ‘Arm Action Step 1. Bilateral inactive Step 2. Bilateral reactive ‘Step 3. Bilateral assist Step 4. Semi-opposition a Step 5. Opposing assist Overall Movement Pratile Legs Arms: 4 Movernent Situation Teacher setected el Child selected - —— Direct we ol E Comments: THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 55 teaching. Learning centers or stations, for instance, are useful when a teacher wishes to assess children’s developmental lev- els in a certain task. While most of the youngsters are working independently at other learning centers, the teacher can be observing the children at a particular center. By rotating the children through the centers, an experienced teacher ean eval- uate a class of 30 children on one motor skill in half an hour Hopping Development Hopping requires the same foot to project the body into the air and catch it. Children do not often choose this mode of travel even after they can successfully accomplish the task: When they do hop, they will choose their preferred foot, sel- dom using their nonpreferred foot unless challenged to do so. Yet, the hop is often required in combination with other lo- Comotor forms, for example, in skipping, in making rapid changes of sideward direction, in controlling momentum dur= ing sudden stops, and in handling unexpected off-balance si uations when the other foot cannot move to catch the weight. Thus, both experience and competence in hopping are i Portant for the developing child. LEG ACTION In addition to observing children’s prehopping movements, ‘we have identified four developmental steps in the leg action of the hop itself. See Table 2 for the definitions of these de- velopmental steps, hs Ithough we think of hopping as a one-footed activity, both legs are active in the advanced hop for distance. To distinguish the twa, we will call the hopping foot the support leg and the Honhopping foot the nonsupport or “swing” leg. The pattern of change in the support leg from prehop mavernents to the ‘iced developmental steps goes from extension in the pre-Table 2 Developmental Sequence for Leg Action in Hoppil projecting) the ee instead of ly one of two hops can be achieved. f| to the side or in front of the body, ip quichly flex, pull 2 Support Knee and id high and held in an inactive pr Step 1. Momentary flight. quickly catch itself again. f the support foot and, then, Body lean fonward allows the The swing leg is inactive. Repeat hops are now possible. DEVELOPING CHILDREN— the foot. The range of the otating aver the on the takeoff. The swing leg now leads the upward-forward movement of 2 5 = g i foot to the ball before the knee and ankle extend to takeoff, The support leg neat a . S i 2 € reaches { Step 4. Projection delay; Swing leg leads. The weight of the child on landing Is now smoothly transferred along a Note. This sequence has been partially validated by Halverson and Wi THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 57 hop to flexion in the carly hop, and then, back to extension in the more advanced hop. Key changes in the swing leg are from inactivity in the early developmental levels to swinging up and dawn to produce momentum in the advanced levels. Seefeldt and Haubenstricker* note that the level 2 inactive swing leg, which is usually held in front of the body (see Fig. a in an ideal position to receive weight in the event balance is lost. ‘The child's first prehop attempts, when they try to hop but cannot get off the ground, are dominated by extension, The child tries to “lift” off the floor by moving the nonsupport leg as high as possible and, at the same time, extending the hip, knee, and ankle to bring the weight up on the ball of the foot. The idea of “hop” is expressed in the extended, support leg and high position of the nonsupport leg, but the child does Fis: 7. Unsuccessful Hop Attempt—2 years:DEVELOPING CHILDREN— THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 59 Hot produce the force necessary to project the body off the oor (see Fig. 7). When the child is hot successful in actually Teaving the floor in a hop, a primitive gallop may result as the body falls off balance, or the child may substitute « two-foot bounce jump. OBSERVING THE LEG ACTION When the child first manages to hop, there has been a Shange from the prehop approach to the task. Rather than Stretching to get the body high, the child changes to quick Alexion in the hip and knee to * ul” the foot from the floor in a “momentary flight” (Step 1) (see Fig. 8), Occasionally, the child may manage two successive hops at this level, but mare often only one hop results For the best view of the leg action in Steps 2 to 4, position Yourself to the side of the child. To distinguish between Steps 2, 2, and 4, first concentrate on the action of the swing leg. If you decide that the leg action is not at the Step 1 level, the nest decision you must make is whether the swing leg is still inactive (Step 2) or whether it is swinging forward to assist in force production (Step 3 or 4). If you decide that the swing leg is inactive, the appropriate developmental step for leg action is Step 2 (see Fig. 8). If you decide that the swing leg is pumping up and down to assist in the hop, then check to see if the swing leg appears to pass behind the line of the Support leg (Step 4) (see Fig. 11), or whether it moves up and down without enough range to pass behind (Step 3) (see Fig 10). In almost all cases, the action of the support leg will match the developmental step of the swing leg. In Step 2, the action Of the knee and ankle prior to takeoff is Primarily flexion as the body “falls” off balance, In Step 3, extension begins, but it is characterized by limited range and early timing. “Early” extension means that extension begins almost immediatelyFig. 9 Hop—a years, Leg action: Step 2, Th pulling his foot from the DEVELOPING CHILDREN— 10 months, his hay aes not Jet hinsselF fll far tirface frame B) THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 61 Fi 10. Hop—16 years. Leg action: Step 3 Arm action: Step 4. The i upward movement of ehind the support leg, The arm ‘ with that leg. The position of the other arn vorking in true opposition. The movertentprofleof his boy's hop hanged frown that illustrated in. Fig hop but does not have sufficient posite the swing leg moves : serine sadPus worion eH Aq Palepuien Aeried uaeq sey aouenbos Stuy “aon “S5U8I5Ip 10 paods seuinboa wae) ure 94) U} yuatuonow jo ues a4) Ms OUR Jo UoIiae a4) al ou ai Jou0 941, 33] PMR Jo IUALVAROW pueNdn pUe peo, any uw AuoNauls ul peach pue psemu04 saxous Bo Buims Bip sysoddo mie Sar “wsisse-Bujsoddo -¢ dang ‘BPS 94 04 40 Kpo9 a4 Par te ARIE UENO 'ageuey 6 ve saUio a jo vans eu “unop sons Rt seh oe ey us 89) (am piewio} SUING Bo) BUNS a) aysoddo apis dup uo Wale 94) “uoptsoddo-149g y days “mop pue dn snow kau) se sian {olleved evo Aew swe ay) “\joaye) saye sinov0 swe ai “yung au 40 au 244 40 10H, UI Ajjensn “Jaxjo8O4 UMop puredn J24)9 yore 0} Us FEMY}DEG PUE pIEMLAOD huYy IWnd Swe 24 WSIsse jorD,eIg *e dang, $2u]eq Jo $0] 0} uon}zea Ul si uauaAOW Sit yeu sieadde jooyer op © UI Japinous ay} ye payeyo. Aje/paui aie uawy “Ayou1q puemdn Sule cul ud juawanow SuiSuIm Ui JOU pue 4YBIIs Aijensn sr LU © Auf 4n990 Kew Apog a4) 40 U0. UI 0 pulyjq suo) \WBpovnie “SPs 24) 0 no pue WBlu Atensn ‘lewion play ave suse du) “eueray eer Sudo} ul uonpy uuy 10} aauenbag jewauidojexag ¢ alge] THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT a ge S358 2282 fg ¢2 2232 g2ke ae it s223 SaEE 8 : a geo oe gf o8, 2855 Bae toad ghd qece © fe oe pace E oe Eties tree siete cE unde iE 2 2 : fA ORE a3 SE c22e5 abe f fpitsgig = if gs i Ghieiii 9 a:k: b aeties ts gest ee sfx oe ee peo ee wenbes ¢ G32; = eeea = Sse 8 aupics 2 atts aj gicbscig 2 2428 aEi"G525 2 “824* along high or out to the side (Step 1) (Fig. 8), or whether move in a “braking” action counter to the direction of the hop (Step 2). Note that the right and left arms may not. held at the same level. In contrast with the inactive and Teattive arm actions, both arms clearly pump up and down together in Step 3 (bilateral assist). If your first decision was that the arms are working in op- Position, then the next decision is whether each arm clearly asses behind the line of the trunk on each swing back (Step 5). If only the arm oppasite the ‘swing leg passes behind the trunk while the other covers a limited swin, ig distance or moves very little, the child is in Step 4 (see Fig. 10). MOVEMENT PROFILE ‘Onee the developmental steps for the Jeg and arm action have been identified, you have a developmental “profile” of the child’s hop. This gives a picture of relative development across components, You will note in Table 1 that Randy Jones movement profile was 3/4. Another child of the same age may have a 3/3, for example, or a 4/3 Although itis theoretically possible to have any combination of components ina movement profile, some combinations are more likely to oceur than others, We have noted that Step 1 (momentary flight) in the legs and Step 1 in the arms (bilateral THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 65 inactive) always occur together, Also, the most advanced hop- Ping combines the most advanced steps in both components. Another common combination is Step 4 in leg action (projec tion delay, swing leg leads) and Step 3 in arm action (bilateral assist). Even children who can use their arms at more advanced levels will tend to use this combination when the goal of the hop is height, extreme distance, or accuracy, or when fatigue sets in during continuous traveling Teaching Hints The teacher should first observe whether the beginner is trying to hop in place, since this effort tends to keep the body in an upright position. It is difficult for the young child to Project the body directly upward against gravity from one foot; therefore, the child can do little more than momentary Aight when hopping in place. Children having trouble may do better if they try to hop forward. This action shifts their weight off balance so gravity can help produce the hop. Once the child has begun to move forward with the hop, the teacher can focus on the leg action to see whether extension in the takeoff phase has begun. At the same time, the teacher should also observe the action in the nonsupport or swing lew. Encouraging use of the swing leg should aid the tukeoff phase. Until children can use their legs to project their bodies sfiectively in the hop, attempts to change the arm action will Probably be ineffective. ‘The balance demands in early move= inent are too overriding. When the legs do begin to project actively in the hop, the teacher should encourage the begin- ning of arm and leg cooperation. . Our observations suggest that development in the ane ferred foot is frequently one step behind that of the preferr toot for both the arms and legs. 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Anes se ‘| jay ave ajyUe pur aauy dy, "| ; ‘sed HOSEL | Bulpueys ay) 40) S2uanbas jeuUdojaK9q p a/qe8 5 "WES WBA Jo 30m 24) z TURUCO|@NaP @SOU “BION S = Bupue| 10) aynyseied Kay g “sUo}} S00 Puen aypprusso yBil awinsse suse oy) 421) BuLing Z joeued fay “uoneas |e1090) 5 ‘@nuNuOD pue UoH!soH pens YPiy e pjoy suse 94) 1es9}e7 }payanpge sunny “z dans e Bulpue| Byun unynyoeved) prem a playa suue a4 9} uu SsapinaYs an = wwaubdun ‘BUIPUR| 20} preNIO) Sexe] WAY) “TYBLINPILY 0} j409}2) Woa} 310Ui 40 .OF 40 ues} prem) oxy suLepuieN HUNG BU Wea} paureWIEW “E dogs -2upUe| 10} premua} saxayy HEMT Burpuaweaiscy fq Biou 10 .0€ 49 wee pienso; sy sjoaue> yuna) aL “ues| pa}oaueD “2 dng ‘Bu /,0e et $89| jo uosieurou prema sy suleiuiews yuna ax WYBly Bung “ues! uchis “1 dng audios wore Huma “BUIPUR) 300)-0m e oy Puenuo) Buiyseas ‘pua}xa uay) SeoUy ay] UOY au 0} SYBIYy aYy BUSULIG ‘yal] uayy SOIy ay) “UorK -Bujpue| p2}ooj-oMy © 10) puayxa uayy seauy aut “jequaz10 Bsayonoudde YBN ayy ‘snouowoUAS ay saduy puB sali 249 ‘US GIy Sepacaid saeuy yYjoq jo uoI¥e an}, 1d “E days 09 918UE SE 4 OZ 1M, Teme” "Zz dag, 2 5 5 g “Burp ue) 10} sana) a 13 ww nn puey an 10 “al ‘Bun insad ‘yy8ij) Suuinp suonemndyu ise 10 yea jowiks Jaye auinsse Kew soa eo an mo & ey) eaow que PaUHED Si YBIUE AYL "HIM, [EWI *T days, quevoduioa wonae Bay : Feld Bujpuey pue wai4 ‘ding 8407 Supueys 243 40} sequanbes jeyuaudojanag g agriDEVELOPING CHILOREN— | of the Standing Long Jump ommon locomotor task, the standing long jump, developmental characteristics that are similar to those Before two-footed jumping can be produced, how- ever, the child will substitute a one-footed takeoff with either ‘@one- or two-footed landing. Thus, the step or leap is a fre- “quent substitute for the two-footed jump for distance. This ne substitution occurs prior to the ability to jump down.* t also persists in the long jumping of some children well into elementary school. Other elementary school children revert ‘back to it when under stress to increase the distance jumped When a two-footed takeoff ean occur, changes in leg action at takeoff progress from a two-footed, forward “fall,” with little ‘orno knee extension, to a two-footed projection takeoff, The first projection takeoff is characterized by incomplete exten- sion of the hip, knee, and ankle. The advanced two-footed takeoff has full extension of the hip, knee, and ankle. In ad- dition to these changes in leg action, the trunk at takeoff shows increasing lean forward from the vertical. The major change in the arms at takeoff is from movement counter to the direc- tion of the jump to a bilateral, forward-upward swing in the direction of the jump. Leg action changes during the flight and landing phase re- volve around the amount of “tuck” during flight, that is the relationship of the thigh with the horizontal. With develop- ment, the thigh increasingly approximates a position parallel to the floor Major arm action changes are from backward movements in Aight, to balancing movements, to stabilized, overhead flexion. The need for parachuting reactions on land- ing also diminishes with advanced development, Parachuting isa term used to describe protective extension movements of the arms to catch oneself when falling, These developmental changes have been summarized by Van Sant,” who hypothesized developmental steps for three THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 71 movement components within two phases of the jump: the takeoff, and the flight and landing. Tables 4 and 5 contain « modification by Halverson of the Van Sant sequences, TAKEOFF PHASE As in the hop, it is important to observe the standing long Jump from the side, opposite the point of takeoff or ‘opposite the flight and landing, whichever phase you are studying Again, you cannot see both phases at the same time. If you find that you cannot sce the action of one of the arms or legs ftom that side, change to the other side, You may also wish to observe from the front when categorizing some of the arm action. We would suggest first assessing the components in- volved in the takeoff phase. OBSERVING THE LEG ACTION. The first developmental level for leg action in the takeoff phase is similar to Step 2 in the hop. The child leans forward enough that gravity ean ratate the body over the balls of the feet. Takeoff is achieved mainly because the taes are pulled from the surface in order to catch the off-balance body in a landing. This is why we call it “fall and catch” (Fig. 12), The distance of the jump is minimal. If the child has achieved a two-footed takeoff with some knee, hip, and ankle extension, you must then decide whether the legs are in full extension at takeoff (Step 3) (Fig, 14) or whether they are still partially flexed (Step 2) (Fig. 13). OBSERVING THE TRUNK ACTION. To determine the de- ‘elopmental level of the trunk action at takeoff, you must q’mpare the line of the trunk with a vertical line. The smaller the angle between the trunk line with the vertical, the less the forvard lean of the trunk. Once you have decided the degree of forward lean of the trunk, then you should concer- trate on the relationship of the head and neck to the angle of the trunk. 1f the trunk fs 30° or less from the vertical andl the ‘ead and neck form a straight line with the trunk, the level73 vi ha THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT DEVELOPING CHILDREN— SS ee RlDEVELOPING CHILDREN— THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 75 e-oot Takeoff, Full Estensin—12 years Tmo on Step 3 Thank actin Stee Arm ation Sep 4 AL mand trunk action show advanced development, The 3 et fully developed,(see Figs. 12 and 19). IF the head is back (neck dorsiflexed), the level is Step 1. Ifthe trunk forward more than 30° with the vertical, and the is tucked into the chest, the child is at Step 3. Ifthe head - ed, Step 4 is being shown. OBSERVING: RMACTION. — Distinguishing between Steps Land 2 in the takeoff arm action isnot dificult, singe Step I the arms are inactive whereas in Step 2 they clearly move down and back. Distinguishing between Steps 3 and 4 ‘iS a matter of deciding whether the forward swinging arms reach shoulder level and move out of plane into an abducted Position out to the side (JFigs. 12 and 13) or whether they stay in plane, stopping their forward swing about shoulder (Fig, 14). The position of abduction is frequently called “high Suard” when hands are held at about shoulder level or higher and “middle guard” when they are held about waist to chest ‘high. These guard positions are frequently seen in early levels of locomotion, most notably, in the toddler attempting walk- ing. Finally, in contrast with all the preceding levels, Step 5 arms show a fully stretched position at takeoff, making trunk and arms a straight line. FLIGHT AND LANDING PHASE } OBSERVING THE LEG ACTION. The key to the three de- velopmental levels of leg action is the angle of the thigh with the horizontal, Envision a horizontal line with another crossing 45° below it (ie.. “half of a right angle”). In flight, Step 1 Le carry the thigh at or below the imaginary line (see Figs. U and 13); Step 2 thighs swing to a position above the lin 3 thighs are carried parallel with the horizontal line: OBSERVING THE TRUNK ACTION. The trunk continues i Hight at the same angle as keoff in Step 1 (less than 30° from the vertical) and Step 3 (more than 30° from the vertical), 82 Wis easy to distinguish between them. Deciding betwee? THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 77 Steps 2 and 3: the trunk takeoff lean is more than 30°. but in Step 2 the body reacts to this precarious off-balance position by hyperextending the trunk, In Step 3, the trunk maintains the forward lean of takeoff until midHight, when it flexes for landing. OBSERVING THE ARM ACTION, In Step 1 of arm action, children either hold the winging position of takeoff or continue to move the arms backward during the early part of the fight. They then reach out or parachute forward to catch themselves while landing. The arm action in both Steps 2 and 3 begins by swinging forward and up into a high guard position, The difference is that in Step 2, the arms then laterally rotate (see Figs. 12 and 13), whereas in Step 3 the arms medially rotate, moving the hands down and back Teaching Hints Action in the takeolf phase substantially affects what is pos- sible in the flight and landing phase; thus the teacher should frst focus on where the child is developmentally in the takeoff Phase, One of the first tasks is to help the child achieve a consistent two-footed takeoff, If the child has difficulty resist- ine the substitution of a one-foot lead, either to help gain distance in the jump, or in reaction to the loss of balance in the takeoff, the teacher may want to change the task slightly Ask the child to try the standing long jump from a height of about 12 inches and reduce the goal from an all-out jump to “medium distance goal. Marking the desired distance with a Piece of tape on the surface will help the child understand how far to try to jump. Reducing the problem of projecting italnst gravity from the floor and reducing the distance goal frees the child to concentrate on keeping the feet together in ine takeoff, After the child ean eonsistently take off with some “*ehsion from two feet, the jump from the floorand increasingTHEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT DEVELOPING CHILDREN— su'}980) pue IYDSHEY "IPIO!SES pu, woRSHOIN4 Jo 220M 94 WiOH} ptlovogoy hq pazisauroUKY aieM Kau. cae alte eh U2eq JOU aney SeauaNbas say) “ARR ue wie s8yj0 94 0} uonsod 8° 24) Uy YOeq UE prEALOA any #09 ay wou) preMINO Ayano BuBuIMS ue 21 pue auljprs Apag 24) 53019 0) piems J0 UONCUIqWOS Bi) ~BulAs premxdeq oun 0} SuiB9q pemsoy ue a Jo mogi@ if MON "sive 24 40 Jano! atic a4} aq 0} SOnUIyUOS uae. ui Buljiey @ ai sjuowysnipe Bujoueje jenuijuod snd vonow Jo sue BuIMS puE siajad ay Jo uoNe}O! a2ue}eqia.UNGD 0}, ba Ui SyIYS OF ave sue pi PINOYS nage Pjay aie spUEY ay Bien BIN ul pay sewnauios aie dau quauedwc: RHE) Aq uo‘puaW® Ho|duinD OF VoWey wom Sanow Bay node v4, Bums pIEADD) aYh fo Pee cae tetas mane, i Rue “UL UoHa\y PeMIIXeLY 4O .06 BuIsned ‘uoneIa/aoIe JoyeAd8 YM PueMuo} SanoW YBIy Bums ays “Z daIg Uuoliouw pleauo) BUN .O6 WeU 19}28.8 s) Ba) AuINS a4) Jo ADU Oy) Jo o/8ue aug ‘Bay BuiBuyms ou 0) aoueseadde yno-Bui00) & NP 9PIS 3N0 saruno ay Buyns eu 40 ty Ww a phe ANUANS 51 Bay Bums ay. YB JEU YIM pEYOo}- und au “T dag quauodiuos uoRse #37 Buluuny 10) saauanbag jeyuawidojsnag 9 9/qeL7 child gains confidence in the abi ity to project and ‘increasing the distance goal should also bring out an ase in the forward lean of the body, The teacher should mitor what the increased distance goal does to the maver ment of the child, however, since too much lean too soon may actually cause a protective reaction in both the arm action component (“winging”) and in the trunk action during flight (hyperextension). Although the forward-upward swing of the arms is important in assisting the child to project on takeoff, early teaching stress on the aris may be counterproduetive, After the child is confident of the ability to use the legs for Projection, teaching designed to bring out increased assistance by the arms will be more effective. Development in Other Locomotor Tasks Developmental steps have also been hypothesized, although Rot yet validated, for the locomotor tasks of running (Table 6) and skipping (Table 7), Study these sequences to pick out the most important changes in each component. Then develop your own decision guides to aid you in categorizing withit Somponent developmental levels, Practice in using your de sision gnides for observation will enable you to select those which are helpful and to revise the others to aid you in making a clearer categorization, There are many other locomotor tasks for which we have no hypothesized steps at this time. Through use of film oF videotape records of different-aged children in action, you ¢alt begin to create your own hypothesized developmental level for selected tasks. First, decide what components you want 1 include and then describe the action within each of the com Ponentts from your filmed or videotaped observations, As yo! THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT | 2 82 2% | |g P 23. 82 | |e = as a. g2F £3 |2 & 8s == | | a fee 28 | | a| |2 seé 22 | |e Sele uae ai s/f 3 & oe ge = EB lz/22 sj2 & 2|2m aale ales Sse 52 |s/s= He/g 25 |8ls2 g Fe [ese 3 ses 25 /Elaz g) [ee a5? 32 [Fee a Bis 23 | [2s fie 23 ES = 25 380) [5= 2 ss ssa) |e | oe Fae Bee Hes] [#2 S52 $52| |§ age 282) | wes wel (2 2 Fe e ig rd position, at some. foot, the right moves backwar Fight arm. nnings of opy : z Z sontinues to mowe back 1. During the hop on the ti has the begil ightiy while ty, el gE Aas ee e7ge2 3 <2 ESsug2 zaeGh geeies EBgSS qistie eco es Zteese §iscee wGagee as a Siepping teg wings upward and forward in synchrony wi €9 direction when the stepping feg touches the flonr Tr ea ee ren he hes the fo: The anon the sae as stepping leg moves backward and down in. ‘Opposition to the stepping leg. At no. time both hands in front of the body, ee that leg and revers Step 3. Opposition. The arm opposite the have nat been validated, Note. These sequences, hypothesized by Halverson,DEVELOPING CHILDREN— ithe components within and across ages, you will begin pick out movements that seem to be clearly different. By “Ordering these from least-advanced to most-advanced, you are ‘On your way to establishing beginning definitions of devel | steps. To test the validity of your ordering, graph the frequency of occurrence of your developmental steps ‘Bcross age. If the developmental levels increase in parallel ‘with age, you know that you have detected some potentially key changes in the skill you are studying. IF you are interested in the entire process of validating developmental sequences, ead the article listed in the Suggested Readings by Roberton. Williams, and Langendorfer We would like to stress here also that development can be charted for the many skills in the Laban framework that have ‘BO name. By studying the changes in youngsters’ response’ 10 the same environmental challenge (“Keep traveling abott the gym on different body parts"), developmental sequences can be formulated Our inability to include such sequences in this chapter underlines the critical need for developmental information on these broader classes of skills. Developmental Trends Across Foot Locomotion : THE BODY IN RELATION TO GRAVITY To summarize our discussion of the development of loo motor forms in children, we would like to present two trends we have noticed that seem to generalize across several foot locomotion tasks. ‘The first is in the way the hady Projects against or cooperates with gravity as it travels. Most advanced locomotor activilies requite 4 “project, ride, and land” sequence of action. The Performer (1) cooperates with and then projects against gravity in the takeoff, (2) cooperates with gravity in the Aight phase. THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 83 and (3) opposes gravity in the landing phase. In early devel. opment, however, there is little or no Projection phase; thus, the sequence is one of fall (cooperating with gravity) and catch (pposing gravity). In the fall, children lean forward with hips and knees flexed, shifting their weight off balance They then hold the knee position, letting the pull of gravity rotate the body over the ball (metatarsal-phalangeal joint) oFone or both feet. While rotating, they often extend at the hips while hold- ing back at the trunk. In the eatch, the foot is pulled or with: drawn from the floor through hip and knee flexion asa response 'o this of-balance position. Thus, the catch begins at takeoff The rate of progress from a fall-and-catch sequence to the more developmentally advanced project, ride, and land se- dence varies from task to task. A child may have hegun to Project upward with a one-foot lead but still be in the fall-and- atch sequence in a two foot to two foot pattern, When children do begin to extend actively atthe hips and knees in the takeol? phase of a locomotor task, they have taken a signifieant step. ia developmental progression. Changes in the manner im which the body is used to accomplish the projection, however, will continue. Opposing gravity in the landing is also an important aspect inall Iocomotor activities. Receiving and absorbing the force, Smoothly slowing the action, and bringing the downward a cme toa halt, or shifting it in another direction, present jinallenge. In landing, the young child is more controlled ™. than controlling, gravity. These early landings are char- sary2'a either by a stiff-legged or a collapsing stop. In the fitMlegged stop there is little Alexion in the knees, ankles, and hips following the landing touchdown. The weight is stopped iatdenly with a jolt rather than slowly absorbed. Tn the col- ise landing, there is little resistance to the action af gravity bythe logs, x0 the mover cat a heap. In advanced levels, Fee child effectively opposes gravity, smoothly controlling the Sanding with an accurately timed reversal from leg extensionFeel DEVELOPING CHILDREN— *§ flexion at landing touchdown. The mover can rediret _the movement back into extension or shift the momentum “Smoothly into a roll or some other task- LEG DOMINATION TO ARM AND LEG COOPERATION A second developmental trend in locomotion on the feet s the shift in force production from legs only to the combined ‘Betion of arms and legs. In early locomotor tasks, the body almost appears to be acting in two parts since considerable movement occurs in the lower body and little in the upper ‘ody: The arms are primarily held out to the side and high in Feadiness for any sudden emergency. As we said earlier, this Protective position is termed high guard (Fig. 7),7 A little later, the arms may be carried about waist level, in middle: Zuard position, or down at the side, but they stil] contribute Hitlle to force production, In early jumping or leaping, the ans May even move in a direction counter to the direction Of travel. This action has been termed winging.* When the arms first begin to work with the legs in force Production, they usually moye bilaterally (together) in an out ward, or forward and upward movement. Finally, in locomotor tasks with alternating foot patterns, movement in synchrony th the leg on the opposite side of the body appears LOCOMOTION ON OTHER BODY PARTS Although coping with the double- and single-task foot pat tems of childhood absorbs much of the young child's times often the child also moves about on body parls other than OF in addition to the feet. While a child has endless ways (OF moving from one place to another in this fashion, rolling is common choice, Rolling is also frequently combined with ie Pattern activities. The ability to transfer the weight smouthly THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT. 85 from a run or a jump into a roll is both a satisfying accom- plishment and an important factor in safety: A child may roll sideward, backward, or diagonally in a curled or stretched position, and he may lead with various parts of the body, such as a shoulder, hip, hands, or knees Earliest to develop is sideward rolling in a stretched position, Infact, rolling from a supine to a prone position isa “milestone” in an infant's development, Rolling forward in a somersault Sscms (© present an intriguing challenge for the very young child even though it is not the easiest way to roll. Either in imitation of older children, or through self-discovery, the child kneels or squats down, puts the head down and sometimes the hands, extends the ees, and waits to roll. After a while, when nothing happens, the child may attempt ta jam over, pushing with everything available and usually ending in si deward collapse. Often a child associates the word “roll” only with the forward somersault. If asked to roll, the child may wot respond with the many other options available, This lim- ited concept of rolling should be expanded, so that the child feels free to choose rolling actions that are effective and com- fortable Use of Arms and Hands ‘in the early developmental levels of locomotion on the t, the body seems to operate in two parts during early rolling. The arms and hands are relatively inactive at rst and ALY ater emerge as important contributors to the total action Many children do not perceive that the hands and arms are fut of a roll. Often children in a stretched roll leave their ams at their sides, aking the roll bumpy and their arms jicless in assisting. When ehildren do hold their arms over- wad in a stretched roll, they’ seldom maintain active flexion mete shoulders. Instead, their arms flop in a cireumductory “Mempt ta compensate for the lack of pelvic lead fi thétr feoDEVELOPING CHILDREN— Often in beginning curled or tucked rolls in a side- ecti arms and hands are also used ineffectively. ‘these early attempts, children are likely to respond to the ‘curl by putting their arms and hands around their Ie they may achieve a tight curl, the position pre- difficulties: (1) the body usually rocks forward toward 5 and head instead of moving sideward, and (2) “the body rolls over the hands holding the knees. Both are unpleasant experiences. nearly attempts to roll in a forward direction, children may sometimes put their heads on the mat without using the arms at all. If the arms and hands are placed on the supporting surface, they do little to assist in the roll. When children do begin to use their arms, they may push harder on one side than on the other or, instead of pushing, completely collapse the support in one arm, The strength and timing involved in receiving the weight on the arms and hands and slowly low- ering the body against gravity are beyond the young child. In spite of early interest in the roll in a forward direction, many children do not find it much fan. Rolls with other parts of the body leading in different directions may prove more satisfying and more useful to them. Losing the Curl A tightly curled (flexed) body position is easy for a young child ina stationary position. Maintaining this position during the rotation presents a different challenge. A common trend ‘across curled or tucked rolls in any direction or with any body lead is to let the body extend or lose the tightness of the cu! during rotation. Sideward rolls lose their curl when the child is on the back, Probably because the abdominal muscles are not strong snough, but also because the child does not attach any im Portance to staying curled. Rolls in a forward direction lose ‘THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 87 their curl when the individual abandons active work daring the roll after the loss of balance, The child pushes to an off balance position and waits for gravity to bring the body down. As it falls toward the support surface, the head, shoulders, and arms remain behind. To combat this head and trunk lag, the hips actively extend forming a long leg-lever to assist in righting the body. The toll is completed with trunk and legs ina semipiked position, pivoting over the pelvis and landing with a plop on the floor (see Fig. 16). The child cooperates with gravity to get an assist in bringing the trunk and head up against gravity, but then is caught in a sitting position at the end of the roll In backward rolls, the curl is lost if the progress of the roll 's slowed or stopped by the head and neck The hips are extended in an effort to keep the action going. O'Quinn com- mented that some children push the feet upward just before the hips pass the shoulders in the off-balance position in an attempt to take weight off the shoulders and head.* These developmental trends in the use of the arms and hands and in the use of the trunk and legs (losing the curl) are “ppirent in many forms of rolling. The following develop- ‘mental sequences have been tentatively determined for the Components within forward rolling, Development of the Forward Roll Roberton and Halverson have previously: hypothesized de- *elepmental sequences in the forward roll” Williams partially validated a mi vation and expansion of these seqirences."™ Based on this work, we have hypothesized sequ 4n initial phase (Table 8) and a completion phase (Table 9) of the roll. The initial phase has been defined as the time from Hal phase has been def i the frst movement in the roll to the point when the hips begin ME forward and downward, The completion phase in- ‘ ion of the roll. "des the time from that point to the ters89 THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT DEVELOPING CHILDREN— BY YBAOAI) BpI/S OF "PAY UIYS aL Uy ‘pa r jdeove mou Spuey PUE SUE a4) Yoddns wy “E days: juuad *suiBaq 110d ay Se qUdlaM a au a 16 ue jEMO} PEAY AL}, Pula PUE apis 0) aprs usa} BpL jelued spuby pur suue ay) “yoddns UUe puE peaH *z days aus 390) 4) Jo 95Eq aul “IUBi9m APO ayy ydeD0e ‘apis au0 oy sasdeyjo9 Apog 34} 05 ‘fjuan 0) aiqeun aq few ane aaeyins ayy UO paseid Usljo ale SpUeY ay) “SpUEY puL sLUP aX) UO UOHe) 5) 1YBIOM a[n!7 “woddns peaH "T doas qusuodwios one wuy pue Peay a aseud Joy puemio4 217) 40) seouanbag jejuawdojanag g aiqeL a2oe = Falke Z ae é Sense = feces Z Fees? < figeey a fievsi = 8 deste a 2 BE ow a e, @ie 5 3 219 5 S 2 & 2s 2 a§ “a s Zs 27 = ¢ eee ae ie = 5 Il, of the body weight (Step 3) Supporting the body weight (Step DattiallyDEVELOPING CHILDREN— THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT | e me Forward Roll—Yor E Fig. 16. Forward Roll—9 years, 1 month, Initial phase: Head phase: Arm action action: Step 2; Leg act cad and trunk a C through ). The cer back held throwghout the cul93 THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 3 i 2 SPRSIENEH PUP UCHEOY Pus ssw Wey} pazisaurodty uoDq any séouanDaS axaUL “ON, a WouBHOA U UIPWUIEW pu jjo4 94) us yuBuaRGLE #09 S99U Ou XO) Sdy fxay saBUy “¢ dang UolKa}} snunuos Sdiy ays joi 24) ynousno.y) UO! PIEMUMOP-PieNUO| AUR LiBaq Sd\\j a4} Je Sn] uO) sn su go anu oy vy gmp ve Been Jae! YO) S28U4 243 399 "Ti Se osje S9SE=/0U) Sdiy ay} Je uoIsua}x@ ‘adejiNs Yoddns op YONO} YO!G 84) JO a/pPIW ayy UayAA “T dais Ul se suifaq Uojoe 89>, “puapra sdiy ‘xay saauy “z days Sanuiquod Apog au) jt pia ‘Hu aif J)0 tjam ave siOpINOUS pow Peay ou “GaepINE vAN S|DEVURD HIEN JONG) BA Buh 249 AB 101 9y) InOYAMGIL) pUENEN PU preMO, BuinOW anuAVOD YUNA) puE PRAY 24) WOR “Yaner Siapinoys eu seYE ISN! edeLNs Yoddns au) Sane9) Peal 34 "Be YUN pUE Peay ON "E dag 6 payrdhwues © vr {od ai Sanur: eB 90e}sns Buy aAeA) LOY) YOU OD S: au9}9q, @2e}ins ayy Yancy SiOpINoYs sly, "Be} YUNA, pue Peay leMted *z des 9409 apew sey >eq JMO} 243 UAYM ana ‘aDeLINS a4) 40 ysl 40 0] a80)9 8u)uyewia! uayj0 ‘pulvioq Bei ¥2eq 1a¢dn puE peaY au) ‘puE| sci puE ¥oeq ay) Jo alppW uy sy ‘Asn IS ASOW}e AOE jANS Buy UO PUR} Sdiy pue MUNA} Jaddn ayy “AyAEsA O} Kpoq a4) sulopuege pjiyo avy “juawanow piemumop-pieMvo} ol ulB>q sci ol) Sy “Bel YUNA pue PeEH “T days wauodiuoD yuna pue peay 729} 849 #900 5} 24Blam 04) [HUN WORD ued pieNIO} 5 UOOs Se ‘fou 24) PuBMo4 BUMAS SUL aY| SISEE Ue yenunUE *E days @ Ul astsse 0} anuryuOD sue ay, JO uiMuaWOW ay) Jo LONENUNLOD Ul 199} BY 0} KPO ay} YSNd oy pas aq ABU spuRY ay) “JsISSe ay ‘Buunp papuaye aie smogia BLNS al) PayDNO} aney 4Oeq 4) Jo aipPIW! Jo/pue siAP\NOYS aly) Way |Jou BYy JO UOrjajdwioD ay} Ul YSISSe O} pieMO) AUIS SUE ay) “|SISSE a}o}dwODy) "Zz days ‘Apa ay) jo jun peal ay) Aq YoeG UeuIas Meu sive ayy “adUERSISSE AAT “T oS Juatiodiaios voroe uy aSeYd UONa|dWOD Ody pAeMI04 a4) 10} seauENbas jejUaUIdojaneg 6 e1Ge) VoRjOW pueMuoy at4) AQ 440 PaDEVELOPING CHILDREN— the body weight very little (Step 1). It is usually easy y Step 3. It is obvious that the weight is primarily _arms and hands if the head is free to slide through the during the early part of the roll (Fig. 17). Distinguishing Steps 1 and 2, however, is more difficult: If you note the child can easily shift the hand position in the early ‘of the roll, you can be fairly sure that the weight is mainly n the head (Step 1, Fig. 15). You will often see the hands phiced in a line perpendicular to each side of the head, some- times with the fingers pointing forward and sometimes point- tng toward the head. You may also see that the arms are ineffective in preventing the body from collapsing to the side. Tn Step 2, the head is in contact with the surface as in Step 1, but the hands are now placed behind the head toward the feet in a fairly wide base of support (Fig. 16), COMPLETION PHASE OBSERVING THE ARM. ACTION, In Step 1, the arms may stay back by the head where they were in the initial phase. Rather than leading the head and trunk in the forward-upward motion of the roll, you will see that they are pulled off by this motion (Fig. 15B). You may also see the arms abducted to the side during this phase. In contrast, in Step 2, the arms swing to assist in the forward-upward movement of the head and trunk. but not until the shoulders or the middle back have touched the surface (Fig. 16D). Step 3 is not difficult to ca- tegorize, The arms and hands push off, beginning the swing forward as the shoulders receive the body weight (Fig. 17C). The assisting action of the arms continues through completion of the roll (Fig. 17D, E, and F). OBSERVING THE HEAD AND TRUNK ACTION. It is not difficult to identify Step 1. Note, first, that the weight is sup> Ported at least in part by the head. As the hips begin to move forward and downward in the early part of the completion THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 95 phase, the child “abandons” the body to gravity. With the head on the surface as a pivot point, the trunk is often forced to flatten out (extend) rather than increase the curl (Hex), The child is unable to bring the upper trunk and head forward and upward after landing on the flattened back so these are left behind, often just off the surface (Fig, 15D). Frequently, the child will end in a supine position or must use the arms and hands to push up to a sitting position. A key difference between Steps 2 and 3 is that in Step 2 the head andl upper trunk just begin to leave the surface as the middle of the back touches (Fig, 16D). They are well away from the surface by the time the hips touch (Step 2) (Fig. 168). In Step 3, however, the head is already well off the surface by the time the upper trunk has touched (Fig, 171), and the trunk is alreadly off the surface by the time the hips touch (Fig, 17} OBSERVING THE LEC ACTION. Focus first on the action at the hips as they begin to move forward and downward in the completion phase. If the hips lose the tightly flexed po- Sthon of the initial phase and extend during the completion of the roll, you can tentatively categorize the action as Step 1 or 2 Concentrate next on the action at the knees. If the knees either maintain an extended position, or increase extension during the roll, the action is defined as Step 1 (Figs. 15 and 16). If, however, the knees increase in flexion during the roll, it's Step 2. Step 3 is usually fairly easy to categorize because ‘pull see a tightening of the curl with increasing knee flexion through completion of the roll. The flexed hip position of the ‘nitial phase is maintained (Fig, 17) Teaching Hints folling ina forward direction is a developmentally advanced Atk: Before attempting forward rolling, children should have “bstantial experience in taking and holding their weight onDEVELOPING CHILDREN— least momentarily, in a variety of situations also be experienced in holding a tightly curled other developmentally less difficult rolling tasks. they choose this form of rolling, they may be ready } accomplish it with some control, thus gaining satisfaction from the experience, Even after experience in taking weight on the hands in other situations, children may still begin the forward roll by putting the head on the support surface. The teacher should imme- diately work to change this concept by helping the child learn take weight on the hands and upper back with little or no contact on the support surface, Then, children need time simply to experience the rapidly changing, upside-down po- sition of this form of rolling, When children have had enough experience to know what to expect, they can begin working to keep the curl in their body after the balance point is lost at the beginning of the roll. NONLOCOMOTION Bending, curling, stretching, twisting, turning are all move- ment terms used by Laban and others to describe the ana- tomic actions of flexion, extension, and rotation. All move- ments of the body are characterized by complex and changing combinations of these actions. For example, stretching pre dominates in reaching for an object on a shelf or for a high fly ball, whereas bending predominates in landing from a jump. ‘Twisting is characteristic in sudden changes of direction or in batting @ softball. The development of these actions within tasks as well as in isolation is, therefore, of considerable in- terest to the teacher of movement Bending and Stretching Bending or curling is the dominant posture of infancy: Stretching assumes an important role in the infant's achieve THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 97 ment of mobility: Thus, from infancy, curling and stretching movernents are farniliar and often used in place of the devel. opmentally more difficult rotation movements. ‘Yet. im daily life, stretching and curling seldom proceed through full joint range. While teaching, we have often observed partial stretches or partial curls even when the full stretch o tight curl was the child’s goal or was required in the task. Children may assume a position that they think is a full stretch and have parts of their body (often arms, fingers, or toes) still Partially curled." As we mentioned earlier, those same chil- dren may find it difficult to assume a tightly eurled position in rolling or to maintain it if their muscles have to work against stavity or centrifugal foree.7 Early in development, the ex- ‘remes of stretching and curling are often not part of children’s Fepertoire, Complexity also affects the stretch and curl extremes. For instance, as children begin to combine flexion and extension movements into sequences, they often lapse into a middle Tinge of motion, for several reasons. Children tend to rush thelr movement when they begin to sequence: thus, they do notallow time for a full stretch or curl. Often, too, they become: Preoccupied with the problem of sequencing and forget to Dish themselves. for the extremes of movement. Timing dif Fulties also affect children’s ability to show a bend or streteh filreme as they work with movement combinations, To fit a fullstretch into a fight period that must end ina flexed landing 's development: ly difficult, First, the separate components {Uist be mastered, and then timed perfectly to each other Anticipation of the Janding must be inhibited until the last Possible, safe moment. Stretching and curling frequently alternate in movement; iy fttly in development, smooth transitions fram one to the other are ofte difficult, particularly within other motor tasks. example, in catching, the arms and body streteh forward ‘0 Teach for the ball. At early levels, bending of the fingersDEVELOPING CHILDREN— Occur until after contact, ree ball or even a miss. In later the arms and body begin the bending phase before _ Soritact. This bending movement continues, slowing as the foree of the moving ball is absorbed. Twisting and Turning ‘Twisting and turning both involve rotation. Turning means to rotate the entire bady around an axis. It is initiated witha briefly resisted twist that is then resolved into a sequentially ‘Fotating turn.” ‘Twisting itself means to resist the rotation of ‘One part of the body with another Part. In twisting, parts of the body may remain stationary while other parts rotate, or Parts may rotate in opposite directions. Both twisting and turning demand differentiation; that i, different body parts must do different things. Turning, how- ver, requires only brief differentiation during the time the twist initiates the turn; ‘twisting of itself requires either that a differentiated part fx while the other part rotates or that it Tolate in opposition. Twisting also requires a resolution either by untwisting to realign the body or by turning. Develop- mentally, therefore. turning is the easier of the two and is | sometimes substituted for twisting, 1 Jn early infancy, the first tendency for the body or segments ofthe body is to turn in one Piece with no sequential res istance, Prior to 4 months of age, the infant moves like a log or “block” when rotated,” After that period, the body “derotates” of Sequentially untwists when rotary force is applied. If the pel Sirdle of the infant is rotated, the shoulders and head resist and then sequentially rotate to become aligned in an untwisted Position, As voluntary turning occurs, it shows a developmental pro- Bression. McGraw studied rolling behavior in infants who were trying to move from supine to prone." She reported that the THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 99 tum was initiated with a twisting action in the upper body while the lower body lagged behind. Later, the pelvis hegan ta lead with the shoulders lagging. We see this trend repeated often in elementary school children as they attempta sideward roll in a stretched position. First, they initiate the roll with shoulders and head, often rolling crooked as a result, Only with experience do they initiate the roll with their pelvis. When children are om their fect, the first twists are usually Performed with one of the differentiated parts remaining fixed. Twisting of parts in opposing directions does not occur until later in development. In developmentally early twists, the child és sometimes unable to keep a body part fied in resist. ance to the twist. When this happens, the twist gives way to tum. Beginning batters, for instance, may walk in a circle with the swinging bat because they cannot fix their feet to resist the twist of the trunk during the backswing or its untwist in the forward swing. As children begin to hold the fixed part so they can twist against it. they still show a developmental progression within the untwisting. First, the derotating parts show-a block rotation rather than a differentiation, as illustrated in throwing and striking. The legs may stay fixed during the twist-up of the backswing, but the’ trunk will then untwist or derotate as a unit or block. Only later will the trunk show a sequential Snbwist, with pelvis and spine initiating their derotations sep- arately. The developmental order within the initiation of der- Station follows generally what McGraw observed in the turning “ction of infants." At first, the untwist begins in the shoulders, and the pelvis follows suit. Later in development, the untwist eains at the pelvis as the shoulders are still twisting into the ackswing AVOIDING CONTACT WITH OBJECTS | One way to avoid an object is to dodge it, that is to change ‘rection while locomoting, This activity forms the basis ofDEVELOPING CHILDREN— s ny games and correlates highly with subjective judgment ‘of games ability. Dodging also is Prerequisite to traveling safely across a crowded Playground or avoiding an obstacle in ‘one’s path, It has traditionally been considered a good indi« ‘sation of overall body Management and is often used as a part ‘of safety work.” Dodging may employ either or both aspects of direction change:® within a single dodge, one may change ‘body facing or movement direction or both. Tests measuring change of direction, show steady improvement from grades 1 through 6.~ Boys tend to be faster than girls within their grade level and, after third grade, faster than girls older than they, These findings, t, do not indicate how the movement changes with increasing age. In fact, we are not sure how an. advanced KS Performer dodges. x Mauldon and Redfern have suggested that 5-year-olds arc ‘usually not able to stop suddenly or to make sharp changes of direction even without the perceptual demand of timing their movement to an outside object.” Harper investigated this Claim in more detail. She filmed 20 5-year-olds, 10 boys and 10 girls, as they ran along a 30-foot pathway and quickly re versed their direction at her signal. She found no difference between boys and girls in movement reversal time or in Tan hing velocities. The children with the fastest reversal times were fast both at decelerating and at changing th (Fig. 18). Of the 60 reversals studied, 88% were exec from 4 to 6 steps. Interestingly, the number of steps did not relate to the speed of reversal, Pivots did occur, but always in combination with other steps. Harper believes that the classic pivot uccurs only from the solated standing, forward- stride position About 75% of the turns were ta the child's left, although this finding may have been an a act of her filming sit Harper also observed children in several other 180° turning situations, such as running to objects or lines before turning: such as the zigzag run, ES 8: THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 101 % € D Fig. 18. Rapid Change of Directioo—5 years. This girl in the Harper Hudy: has fst running and reversal times, Initiation of her facing change rcsedes placement of the left foot in an oblique direetion (feine A) The Tht foot is not placed wntil frame © The left foot then pushes off in the "everse direction She noted that 5-year-olds tended to circle Jedimensional ob- Jects but to pivot or reverse turn from a forward stride position when asked to run to a'line on the floor and return Teaching Implications Harper's data tentatively suggest that dodging practice ‘hould focus on the twisting movements of the upper bods, When a facing change is called for, rather than on placementDEVELOPING CHILDREN— et. Some English field hockey players have suggested t years: “. .. remember that the head is in charge of balance and often initiates the movement of the feet... . Throw head into the lead in the new direction, .. . Think ‘consciously of the head and the push-off.* SENDING OBJECTS AWAY To generalize the course of development for all motor tasks that involve sending an object away would be premature, given Present knowledge. We do, however, have information on the development of forceful throwing and striking with the hands ‘or with a handheld implement. In fact, several similarities exist between the development of forceful overarm and si- dearm throwing and overarm and sidearm striking. Although we will focus this section on those tasks, we will also share some hypothesized developmiental sequences for Punting, another form of sending an object away. Development of Trunk Action in Throwing and Striking The first similarity between throwing and striking tasks is iF the way trunk action (action of the pelvis and spine) develops. i In producing forceful throwing and striking movements of the hand, the trunk acts first as a passive, nonmoving stabilizer and later as an active force producer. When the trunk begins moving, it moves only in a forward-backward direction. Later it moves in a rotary direction. Therefore. both the primitive and advanced performer face their target at ball release, but the advanced child has sequentially rotated to that position. The primitive mover began there. Three developmental steps Sccur in trunk action. They are listed in Table 10, Trunk action needs to be observed from both the side tear of the performer. The first thing to look for is the presene® of rotary movements. If no rotation is occurring, the child i THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT ig and Striking Table 10 Developmental Sequence for Trunk Action in Throwin, for Force a Seas Bass Bs=$ 2gus £822 Se82 Z i 285 BEge £2es 2555 Eh eh 8225: iaict gens abesl geese both rotate away janeously begin forward rotation, trunk “block" rotation, The spine and 5E tion has begun, ‘Step 2. Upper trunk rotation or total 103 Z2 ie a &3 ee = ef s BG 25/8 SB ali Boa Peas | 2 | 252 | Ela i aid: i Fisl3 | eesls q 23 |5 e235 : = 5 8) i if |104 DEVELOPING CHILDREN— Fig. 18. Ovevarm throw—3 years, 4 months. funk action: Step 1: Humerus action and Forearm ation. Step l Fo action: Step 3. Although her trunk and arm action are primitive, this chil does tse oppostion in her foot action. Note, though. the lick of opening uP in level 1. Observation from the side will indicate whether a level 1 child is flexing forward at the hips or whether the trunk isnot used at all or is moving only as a result of arm movement Active flexion is a sign that the child is trying to use the trunk for force production; the child may, therefore, be ready (© experiment with the next step, rotation (see Fig. 19) Ifa child is using some form of trunk rotation to producé force in the throw/strike, then either level 2 or 3 has been reached. To determine which level. the observer must stand to the rear of the child to watch the hips and shoulders forward rotation begins. If the hips and upper spine start 1 tating forward at the same moment, the child is in level THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 105 Fig. 20. Undifferentiated Shoulder and Head Movement—3 years, 3 ‘months. By contact, this child’s head! has rotated with her shoulders patt the iitet, The suspended ball is wsed to simplify the perceptual demands of block rotation (see Fig. 22). If only the upper spine rotates, the child is also in level 2. If, however, the hips begin forward rotation while the shoulders are still rotating backward, the child has reached the advanced level 3, differentiated rotation. Teaching Hints All forceful throwing or striking movements with the hands must eventually be timed to the action of the trunk. The teach- “rs first goal, therefore, should be to observe trunk action development within those activities. If children are not yet rolating. they should be encouraged to practice twisting and both separate from and within the throwing or Unbvisting, triking action. They should be challenged to do so with head wd feet stationary. As they twist, many young children ut i ciously try to keep their heads in line with their shoul * Their heads follow the movement of their shoulders 1 arms when they throw, and especially, when they bat. ently, they never see the target (Fig, 20). With someTHEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 107 DEVELOPING CHILOREN— “(9 295) Buns wereK0 TonaeGe at Syiicdso ween, pur snouny oy se) ioitpiobar stan 0K au Lois ‘Bulmsyoeq use hoyeedaid 24) jo Uondeoxe ay Uy GENS aver s'oneeS2IDMIS UONEPIIEA “aION Buj3e) yuo Jo Mwoul 34 nun Fe 103400 eu) sy Bunyoes sherop sea BUH, 94) “Pe, wees Y9B6d (2uids Jaddn) sispinoys au) sy0jaq yulod Arex $Souny 53! 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Step 1 of Humerus Action in the Qvera moves forward to ball release in « plane that intersect ‘above or helow the horizontal line of the shoulders (dé Hines Throw: The lumens trunk obliquely jepicted by the dashed THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 109 Fig 22. Overarm Throw—& y ‘ars, § months, aig setion: Step 2, Humerus action andl Fovcarm acts Step 1; Foot 18, howe? 3, This bay's arm action as simar to that ofthe child tn Figure outer, he bas progressed to block rotation of the trink. Frame D. the ink Sear view of frame A. illustrates the oblique angle formed by aes this inability to keep the head stationary while r0- OF ec ereads to the feet. As we mentioned in the discussion Sept: these children cannot rotate their bodies without 4s fant #round to keep their feet in line with their trunks nt. Hany they end up stepping in a circle as they swing the thunk vt and fect need to become differentiated from the », each intermediate levels of throwing and striking. When a child has established block rotation with good range,DEVELOPING CHILDREN— ae E Fig, 23. Overarm Throw—6 years, 2 months. gaara “Trunk aston Step 2 Hunan ato and ovum mtn: Se 2 Fs sete, geen. Dacing forward movement thi boy's umers frmy a0 8 Frente Fen anges nk ans ee facing ithas moved ahead of his trunk. His forearm lags (frames A to THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 111 the next teaching goal can be differentiated rotation. Often, a diagonal step to the side encourages the hips to begin rotating earlier than the shoulders. Opening Up ‘second developmental similarity between forceful throw- ingand striking lies in a phenomenon referred te as “opening up.” Harper and Struna use this term to describe the simul- neous movement of body parts in opposite directions in the effort to produce force in the same direction, Primitive levels of throwing and Striking with the hands do not exhibit this, coordination. Young strikers, for example, first dey the pad® dle back. Then the hand, trunk, and any stepping actions begin {orvard movement simultaneously. As they become more ad- Vanced, however, they «will step forward as the bat or paddle 's sil going back.™.* They spear to stretch out, expand, or ®pen up when observed from the side. This occurrence may Telite to the type of back or reverse swing used, Prim: ive throwers and strikers lift the hand to head level via shoulder abduction, flexion, and lateral rotation. Advanced children Swing the hand across the body, back, and then up in a eir- cumduetory movement." An extre vanced over- © prolongation of opening up oceurs in the ad- and sidearm throw for force. In this example “nn swing occurs while the forward step is taken, Ie pues as forward trunk action begins, As the trunk pacceds in its rotation, the arm starte rp rotate laterally (out- har) the shoulder. Because of thi lateral rotation, the wll the child's hand remains stationary behind the body as the child moves forward or even drops back or down. When ao I aiid upper spige tee et to front ficing. ths vert, (otited. Literally tg aa farthest point back. When 8 the side in motion pictures, the forearm élten “Pears parallel with the floor (sce Fig. 25D). Thus, during the reverse and it110 DEVELOPING CHILDREN— THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT on the next teaching goal can be differentiated rotation, Ofte diagonal step to the side encourages the hips to begin rotating earlier than the shoulders, Opening Up A second developmental similarity between forceful throw. ing and striking lies in a phenomenon referred to as “opening up: Harper and Struna use this term to describe the simul: neous movement of body parts in opposite directions in the cflort to produce force in the same direction, * Primitive levels of throwing and striking with the hands do not exhahit this, svordination. Young strikers, for example, first dee the pi de back. Then the hand, trunk, and any stepping actions begin forward movement simultaneously. As they beeome more at Breed, however, they will step forward as the bat or paddle [still going back.” They appear to stretch owt, expand, oF mteey’P When observed from the side. This occurrence may Telite to the type of buck ox reverse swig ued. Pinte throwers and strikers lift the hand to head level via shoulder c D abduction, flexion, and lateral rotation. Advanced children mung the band across the body, back, and then up in a eir cumductory movement. An extreme prolongation of opening up occurs in the ad- heced over and sidearm throw for force, In this example, the reverse arm swing occurs while the forward step is taken and it continues as forward trunk action begins. As the trunk Rrnseeds in its rotation, the arm starts to rotate laterally (out- pally) at the shoulder, Because of this lateral rotation, the aos valli the chile's hand remains stationary Behind the body as ihe ‘hild moves forward or even draps back or down. When E the pelvis and upper spine have rotated to front facing, the Fig. 23. Overarm Thro—6 years, 2 months, 2 cit bas cofated Intorally fo ite fithea peta Bae E ee foe a Te el ey sae intl from the side in motion pictures the fre ft Pee Eee ficing (ame Dh PPears parallel with the oor (see Fig, 25D), Thus, during mes A to Bi thas moved ahead of his trunk. His forearm lags (feDEVELOPING CHILDREN— THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT rt 13 Fig 24. Overarm Throw—7 years, § months,DEVELOPING CHILDREN— Fs, 7 months, ce So ae rele reece or etenppe fing ane D), This ch i ink ator sal cle longh sana THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 115 he entire forward rotation of the trunk, the ball and hand have lagged behind the performer. He/she. has opened up to jhe Point of rotating forward and out from unde histher own hand as though someone were holding it ac he/she: untwists forward Development of Arm Action Vatil considerable opening up oceurs in throwing and strik- Hew fefer to the movement as “arm dominated”; that is thearm leads the forward movement of the body.” As opening Arta Ba: the arm begins to lag behind the trank ‘smovement As this lag increases with development, the body rotates com. pletely to front facing and stops momentarily as the hand fol- lows, swinging around it to contact or release Developmental sequences have been validated for the ao- prof the humerus (upper army and the forearm in the thr HS hey Lave bee hypothesized for the preparatory fun Dickswing®* and for foot action. These sequences are defined in Tables 1 and 12, Langendorfer™ found that the * also describes movements used in overarm rm sequence describes the action of the peckethead in overarm Striking rather than the action of the brearm itself OBSERVING THE PREPARATORY BACKSWING, Develap- wee Young individuals may omit the backswing entirely hand fy OW" The ball ig simply flung from wherever the in, Salas it. Those children showing some attempt mig gE the ball. backward in_preparat If the hand does hildren the, “ist, then the child iy either in level 2 hate in level 2 Tif the ball directly up to a position he shoulder. The elbow stays quite flexed. Children in "é the ball outward, up, and anmundl extending the114 Fig: 95. Overarm Throw—6 Trunk section: Step 2; Hum Step 3. The point of deepest facing (frame D). This child's arm w in trunk action and stride len DEVELOPING CHILOREN— G years, T months werus and Forearm a ey pvavanced, bul farther develop wn: Step 3; Foot action ath may still occur. THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 115 the entire forward rotation of the trunk, the ball and hand fave lagged behind the performer. He/she has opened up to the point of rotating forward and out from under hivher sun hand as though someone wese holding. it as helshe untwiste forward. Development of Arm Action Until considerable opening up oceurs in throwing and strike ing, we refer to the movement as “arm dominated” that is, the arm leads the forward movement of the bol As opening “Poccurs, the arm begins ta lag behind the trunk’s movement, As this lag increases with development, the body rotates com bletely to front facing and stops momentarily as the hand fol lows, swinging around it to contact or release Developmental sequences have been validated for the ac- ton of the humerus (upper arm) and the forearm in. the throw.*.¢8 They have been hypothesized for the preparatory arm backswing®" and for foot action." These sequences are defined in Tables 11 and 12. Langendorfer® found that the humerus sequence also describes movements used in overarm striking. The forearm sequence describes the action of the rackethead in overarm striking rather than the action of the forearm itself aa OBSERVING THE PREPARATORY BACKSWING. Develoy mentally young individuals may omit the backswing ae When they throw. The ball is simply flung from wherever the hand! first contacts it. Those children showing, some fee ot moving the ball backward in preparation for the tee should be observed from the front or side. If the hi =e not cli below the waist, then the child és either in ie ct. Children in level 2 lift the ball directly up to & pe mxed, Children in above the shoulder. The elbow stays quite Ae A Be ibe level 3 swing the ball outward, up, and around, ©en in level 4 swing the ball downward : using full elbow extension. JRWARD ACTION OF THE HUMERUS. ntal level in humerus action is best ob- side. The first decision to make is whether s being carried forward to ball release in a line the line of the shoulders, thus forming aright fh the trunk. If the humerus is not in line with the s, that is, itis moved forward obliquely above or below ‘the shoulder line (see Figs. 21, 19, and 22), the child is in Jevel 1. The elbow will point down toward the floor or up “toward the ceiling, If the humerus is aligned with the shoul- ders, the child is either in level 2 or 3. ‘Level 2s distinguished from level 3 by looking at the child's position at the moment of front facing. This is the point in the throw when the child has rotated the shoulders to a position’ J with or “facing” the target (see frame D in Figs. 24, and 25). In level 2, the child moves the humerus toward the target independently of trunk rotation. By front facing, the humerus has moved so far ahead of the trunk that the elbow appears to he pointing at the target (see Fig, 23). B standing, to the side of the child, this configuration is easy to spot. i the elbow is outside the line of the body at front facing, the child is in step 4 If, however, at front facing the child holds the humerus #8 line with the trunk so the elbow is pointed toward the observet at the side, the child is in step 3 (see Frame D, Figs, 24 and 25). The child is able to fix the shoulder joint, allowing humenas to become an extension of the trunk. OBSERVING THE FORWARD ACTION OF THE FOREARM (RACKETHEAD), The action of the forearm in throwing of the rackethead in overarm striking is a fascinating phenoar enon, resulting primarily from lateral rotation of the humeris at the shoulder, The first decision to be made in assessing # child’s developmental level in forearm action is whether THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT 117 “forearm lag” occurs as the child throws or strikes. Forearm lag is detected by watching the ball in the child's hand. As the child rotates or flexes forward, the ball may travel steadily toward the target. If it does, no forearm lag has occurred and the child is in Step 1. If, however, the ball-in-the-hand or the rackethead seems to drop downward or stay stationary as the child rotates for- ward, then lag has occurred. The child is either in step 2 oF step 3. The difference between these two levels is difficult to see without the assistance of slow-motion videotape or film, for the difference is a matter of timing. Children who complete their lag before reaching front facing (see Figs. 23 and 24) are in level 2, Children who can delay the last moment of lag until they reach front facing (see frame D, Fig. 25) are in step 3. Development of Foot Action Table 12 defines a sequence for the action of the feet in throwing and striking that has been hypothesized by Rober: ton.” Unlike the other components of the throw, foot action tends to be variable across trials and less predictable develop- mentally. For this reason, developmental categorization Is questionable without a number of observations and, even then, it may be less reliable. Movement Profile Research is only beginning to chart the develo lationships across component levels in the oversr throw. This question has not been addressed at all in striking. Roberton and Langendorfer# reported that in 7 children whose overatm™ throwing was fallowed for 9 to- 14 years, trank action was the first component to develop, progressing to block ratation (step 3}, Then the humerus progressed to level 2. followed by fore:‘DEVELOPING CHILDREN— THEIR CHANGING MOVEMENT lig arm action, Humerus action then continued te level 3, being the first component to reach an advanced state. After that, the trunk action and forearm action seemed to progress to their advanced levels at about the same time. Not all children, however, reached those advanced levels by the teen years. In another study, Halverson et al. found that most seventh grad- ers had not yet achieved advanced levels in throwing. Common profiles in the throw, then, are block rotation (Step 2 of trunk action) combined with any of the humerus levels Level 2 of humerus action frequently combines with level 2 of forearm action. Level 3 of humerus action is usually seen with cither level 2 or 3 of forearm action. The earlier development of trunk action may be why the movements in sidearm striking tasks seem developmentally easier to achieve than the mevements in throwing tasks. The advanced tennis forehand drive, for instance, combines block or differentiated rotation of the trunk (Step 2 or 3) with an oblique or horizontal humerus (Step I or 2) and an extended elbow. The advanced overarm throw combines differentiated rotation with humeral lag, elbow at aright angle. and a com- plete forearm lag (Step 3). The advanced thrower, therefore, has more developmental steps to master, Frequently, in fact, children substitute a sidearm sling for an o they need to produce force. Their trunk action has developed toa block rotation level, but their arm action remains primitive and not helpful in force production. They change their arm, therefore, toa straight lever and fling the ball via trunk rotation and horizontal shoulder adduction (Fig. 26). The movement is similar to-a one-handed sidearm strike, such as the forehand drive, 5. Seeteldt foot position. and SI ‘Step 1. No step. The child throws from the ir m throw when 's standing height. Wote. This sequence was hypothesized by Roberton® from the work of Leme and Shambes, Contralateral, long step. The child steps with the opposite foot a distance of over half the 3 ‘Table 12 Developmental Sequence for Action of the Feet in Forceful Throwing hand. ‘Step 3. Contralateral, short step, The child steps with the foat on the opposite side from the throwing. ‘Step 2. Homolatera! step. The child steps with the foot on the same side as the throwing hand, Step 4. Teaching Hints It is difficult to attain much range le to differentiate on ring block rotation, and 's rotation unless the feet