Free «Gross Motor Development» Essay Sample

Research done by early development specialists has not been successful in identifying the causes of movements in infants. The process is so complicated because it involves the application of multiple sensory signals, which are integrated to produce appropriate response (David, 2008). Even simple tasks like sitting upright are determined by millions of sensory cells. Examples of cells involved in this task are retinal, vestibular, cutaneous sensory, sensory cells in muscle spindles and joint proprioceptive cells. Information is extracted from these cells so that decisions are made and implemented in thousands of muscles for an infant to sit upright. This is the reason why infants with delayed development pathologies require more time to sit upright.

One of the important development milestones that a child achieves is sitting by herself or himself. Sitting posture is one of the standards used to asses sensorimotor of infants. This assists in the identification of children who need therapeutic intervention. There are three ways of determining delayed development in infants. These are the traditional linear analysis, nonlinear analysis and the artificial intelligence method. These methods use the Force plates to monitor development in infants with delayed development patterns. The force plates determine the centre of pressure from the Childs’ sitting position.

The most effective method of detecting delayed development is the nonlinear methods. It detects even the smallest change thus able to generate repeated patterns in postural sways in children suffering from this condition. If the use of spectral analysis is employed, high frequency that ranges from 20 to 30 Hz was observed in postural sway of children with the normal development. The high frequencies are easily seen in the anterior-posterior in early sitting. This is not observable in infants that suffer from delayed development. Research shows that children who fail to sit upright by the age of two years will not learn to walk at all (David, 2008). Parents should therefore apply therapeutic intervention where possible to assist children with delayed development.