Children's motor development
From primitive reflexes to the golden age of learning: the major milestones, their ages and the laws that order them.
- 20 cards
- 5 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- On the timeline
- The steps
- Scenarios
- Understand
A few cards from the deck
Primitive reflexes: what is it?
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The newborn's automatic motor responses (sucking, grasping, stepping) that fade in the first months.
Their fading makes way for voluntary movements.
Motor milestones: which step comes after "Head control"?
- Sitting
- Crawling
- Walking
- Running
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Sitting
This is the most common order, not a rule: about 4% of children never crawl on hands and knees (WHO study, 2006), and the age varies.
Cephalocaudal law: what is it?
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Motor control progresses from the head down to the feet.
A child holds up their head before sitting, then walking.
A 4-month-old holds the head but not yet the back. Which law shows this?
- The proximodistal law
- The cephalocaudal law
- Hick's law
- Fitts's law
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The cephalocaudal law
Control moves down from the head.
Proximodistal law: what is it?
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Control progresses from the centre of the body to the extremities.
The shoulder is controlled before the fingers.