Motor

Knowledge and Skills Framework: Motor

An understanding of motor development cannot exist in isolation and will be dependent on expanded knowledge and skills in many areas including

  • family systems
  • collaborative team work in critical care units and community services
  • infant neurobehavioural functioning

This page summarises the knowledge base on motor development in babies with medical fragility (physiological, behavioural and developmental vulnerabilities).

Early intervention providers can use this framework to ensure they have the necessary knowledge and skills to support the motor development of these babies from birth onwards.

Knowledge required

Early intervention providers should demonstrate that they understand

  • the importance of critical periods of brain development
  • the vulnerability of the developing nervous system to neurological insults, biological and environmental influences
  • the evidence supporting the potential of early experiences to both positively influence early brain development and result in maladaptive neuroplasticity
  • the different theories of motor learning, historical and current
  • the importance of early movement variability as a key indicator to typical motor development and atypical variability as a key component in identifying motor control problems
  • typical developmental motor trajectory in both typically developing and preterm infants
  • the different motor assessment tools available and their relative use in different situations

Skills required

Early intervention providers working with families of high-risk infants should be able to

  • be aware of the risk of physical evaluation to incompletely developed musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, sensory, cardiovascular, pulmonary systems
  • demonstrate expertise in using specific predictive (e.g. GMsA), evaluative and discriminative motor assessment tools
  • analyse what motor skills the baby has; observing what is missing from their repertoire and how they perform functional movement with an understanding of the implications of this for the future
  • develop successful parent–infant motor interactions via mutual problem solving, anticipatory guidance, scaffolding activities into achievable steps and modelling of appropriate motor challenges
  • support parental sensitivity to increase awareness of their infant’s individualised motor behaviour
  • use insight of the infant’s motor behaviour to induce active participation and challenge of the infant with activities at the limits of their ability (“Just Right Challenge”)
  • recommend appropriate motor opportunities for a wide variety of exploratory and developmentally appropriate activities requiring different postural control strategies and actions produced by the infant that support the parent-infant relationship
  • modify and enrich the infant’s environment (using equipment/parental interaction/toys) appropriately to support motor learning within the tolerance of the infant
  • use specific handling skills that provide physical support where necessary to facilitate activity and/or modify unhelpful activity, reducing support as the required activity is produced and ultimately initiated and led by the baby
  • recognise the need for opportunities for rest for the infant (and the parent)