The Study of Motor Development in Infancy and Its Relationship to Psychological Functioning

The analysis of early postural development and locomotion can be used as one measure of the integration of central nervous system maturation in the first 2 years of life. Using this index, involvement of the central nervous system was found in the histories of half the children with organic brain disorder and half the children who had severe schizophrenia with defective intellectual functioning. However, there was no absolute division of children with schizophrenia or primary behavior disorders into those with and without evidence of early neurological disorder. It is suggested that there may be a spectrum of developmental disturbances and that the severity of these may be related to the difficulties some individuals experience in maintaining psychological integrity in the face of stress.