Discuss the patterns of motor development in middle childhood years.

Question

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Answer 1

Answers will vary. Throughout middle childhood, children show steady improvement in their ability to perform gross motor skills. During these years, muscles grow stronger, and neural pathways that connect the cerebellum to the cortex become more myelinated. Experience refines sensorimotor abilities, but there are also inborn differences.By the age of six to seven, children can usually tie their shoelaces and hold pencils as adults do. Their abilities to fasten buttons, zip zippers, brush their teeth, wash themselves, coordinate a knife and fork, and use chopsticks all develop during the early school years and improve during childhood (Beilei et al., 2002).Throughout middle childhood, boys and girls perform similarly in most motor activities. Boys show slightly greater strength, especially more forearm strength, which aids them in swinging a bat or throwing a ball. Girls show somewhat greater limb coordination and overall flexibility, which is valuable in dancing, balancing, and gymnastics.At puberty, gender differences favoring boys increase. The differences in physical abilities are also influenced by the social conventions which stereotype physical activities as either masculine or feminine.