Infants return to two-handed reaching when they are learning to walk.

Full Abstract

The authors examined whether infants of about 1 year return to 2-handed reaching when they begin to walk independently. Infants (N = 9) were followed longitudinally before, during, and after their transition to upright locomotion. Every week, the infants' reaching responses and patterns of interlimb coordination were screened in 3 tasks involving different adaptive reaching responses. Before the onset of upright locomotion, the infants responded to each task adaptively. Following walking onset, they increased their rate of 2-handed responses in all tasks. The 2-handed responses declined when the infants gained better balance control. The results suggest that infants' return to 2-handed reaching is experience dependent. Those findings are discussed in terms of the integration of new developing motor skills into existing cognitive and motor repertoires.

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Author information

Author/s: Corbetta, Daniela (D); Bojczyk, Kathryn E (KE);

Affiliation: Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, 1362 Lambert, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. dcorbetta(-atsign-)sla.purdue.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of motor behavior (J Mot Behav), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Mar; vol 34 (issue 1) : pp 83-95

Dates: Created 2002/03/06; Completed 2002/05/14; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11880252, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Child Development
Female
Hand Strength - physiology
Humans

Infant
Learning
Male
Walking

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