Motor skills
Motor skills
Children with Down syndrome usually develop their motor skills more slowly for age
than other children.
The development of fine motor skills which enable children
to pick up and manipulate toys and objects, to learn to feed themselves, drink from
cups and dress themselves clearly influence both learning and self-help skills.
The development of gross motor skills for sitting, standing, walking and
running transforms children into independent individuals and influences
all aspects of their social, cognitive and language development.
Research into the reasons for this is limited though increasing and the
major explanation given in almost every paper and book is 'hypotonia' or
'floppiness of muscles'. In fact there are no objective definitions of
or ways of measuring 'hypotonia' and it has not provided any real
explanatory value.
As with all areas of development, children with Down syndrome
show considerable individual differences in motor development and not all are very
delayed. There is a need for more research into motor learning in children with
Down syndrome which takes account of current increasingly sophisticated understanding
of motor control and motor learning in typically developing individuals.
Further reading and resources
Research
The Trust has just begun to develop research in this area in co-operation with Louise
Wood at the University of Portsmouth and Dale Ulrich at the University of Michigan,
USA. An initial study of gait in preschool walkers is underway.
Education
The Trust has recently reviewed the research literature and published two books.
The first
is an overview of the research into motor development across the age range for individuals
with Down syndrome set in the context of the information from current research into human
motor learning and control.
The second provides a detailed review of research into early
motor development and into effective approaches to intervention.
References
A list of publications
related to work in this area is also available.