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The development of motor competence during infancy and childhood is dependent upon and influenced by the growth and maturity characteristics of the child interacting with the environment in which a child is reared. Environmental opportunities and restraints for movement interact with the biological substrates of growth and maturation to determine the motor repertoire of the child. This paper provides a brief overview of motor development during infancy and early childhood and then highlights several specific areas and/or questions: critical evaluation of stages for specific movement patterns; extension of the dynamical systems framework; genotypic contributions to motor development; metabolic and physiological correlates of motor development; relationship of motor development to the growth of the brain, status at birth and early postnatal growth; and social contexts of motor development.
Robert M. Malina (Thu,) studied this question.