Ptjournal

Páginas: 35 (8531 palabras) Publicado: 13 de enero de 2013
The Complexity of Childhood Development: Variability in Perspective Beatrix Vereijken PHYS THER. 2010; 90:1850-1859. Originally published online October 21, 2010 doi: 10.2522/ptj.20100019

The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, can be found online at: http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/90/12/1850 Collections This article, along with others on similartopics, appears in the following collection(s): Down Syndrome Motor Control and Motor Learning Motor Development To submit an e-Letter on this article, click here or click on "Submit a response" in the right-hand menu under "Responses" in the online version of this article. Sign up here to receive free e-mail alerts

e-Letters

E-mail alerts

Downloaded from http://ptjournal.apta.org/ by gueston January 13, 2013

Pediatrics Special Issue

The Complexity of Childhood Development: Variability in Perspective
Beatrix Vereijken
B. Vereijken, MSc, PhD, is Professor, Human Movement Science Programme, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, SVT, NTNU, 7491 Trondheim, Norway. [Vereijken B. The complexity of childhood development: variability in perspective. Phys Ther.2010;90:1850 –1859.] © 2010 American Physical Therapy Association

The complexity of childhood development is exemplified in the variability of development that is seen across tasks and individuals. Furthermore, variability in performance is omnipresent within individuals across repetitions of a task and across individuals performing the same task. Previously, this variability was thought to reflect error ofmeasurement or error of execution. On this account, variability reflects noise that should be filtered or averaged out of the data in order to reveal the “true” underlying characteristics of the performance. Although errors of measurement and execution indeed contribute to variability in movements, research in the last 2 decades has revealed characteristics of variability that are far moreinteresting than just noise. These characteristics can be deeply informative about underlying control processes and point to directions for clinical practice. This perspective article reviews different ways of characterizing variability, illustrates changes in variability as a result of development and learning, and discusses different theoretical perspectives on the role of variability that give cluesabout how to understand changes in variability and how to deal with variability in clinical settings.

Post a Rapid Response to this article at: ptjournal.apta.org 1850 f Physical Therapy Volume 90 Number 12 Downloaded from http://ptjournal.apta.org/ by guest on January 13, 2013 December 2010

Complexity of Childhood Development

C

hildren’s motor development typically is described as anorganized sequence of developmental milestones that children neatly pass through on their way to adulthood. The numerous milestones in this orderly march were described in great detail by pioneering researchers such as Gesell,1 McGraw,2 and Shirley.3 Their early work provided the foundation for the subsequent deduction of normative charts that carefully depict the “typical” ages and stages whenchildren who are developing “typically” achieve the major motor milestones of posture, dexterity, and locomotion.4,5 Behind the simplicity of these orderly charts, however, lies a reality that is far more complex and variable, even for “the typically developing child.” Not only do the ages vary at which individual children achieve the various milestones—thus, the age bands in the normativetimetables— but the sequence of milestones itself is not obligatory and can vary considerably from child to child.6 Infants can skip stages temporarily or altogether, they can briefly sample a more advanced milestone but not converge on the new skill consistently until several days or even weeks later, and they can skip back and forth between the various stages, achieving more advanced milestones before...
Leer documento completo

Regístrate para leer el documento completo.

Conviértase en miembro formal de Buenas Tareas

INSCRÍBETE - ES GRATIS