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 charity 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 charity 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.