Child Physical Performance The Concept of Motor Development Essay

Child Physical Performance The Concept of Motor Development - Essay Example Whatever the case, it is apparent that some specific motor habits and activities are expected of children between a certain age group, that is surely linked with their expected neuromotor development. Expected Activities: the age group under consideration for studying the link between neuromotor development and movement mechanics in humans has been from children of ages 5 to 12. The basic neurological functions have by now developed enough in children between these age limits to enable them to perform certain activities that are universal in this context and form the basis of the study of movement science. Any abnormalities can then be examined easily as we already have the established and the expected activity range for these children. The method of data collection may differ among the scientists, but it is unanimously agreed that there are a total of eleven basic activities that should be performed by children of this age group. These activities are known as fundamental motor skills (NSW 1997), and they form the basis of all the other and more advanced activities that an individual performs later in his life (NSW 1997). Six of these activities would be discussed in this paper. The first among those activities is running. Through studies it has been established that among both boys and girls, this skill is expected to be mastered by the age of 10, however, if any child has not learned to perform it properly till the age of 6, it is unlikely that he or she would learn to do so ever in the future (NSW 1997). Running is one of the most common fundamental skills performed by children in this age group. The skill of kicking has shown to increase and improve drastically with age, from the limit of 5 to the limit of 12, with much more boys performing the skill than girls, and the general trend of increased proportions in the learning of this skill, too, had a steeper gradient among boys than among girls (NSW 1997). This trend in itself reflects upon the differences in the physical activities expected of boys from girls based clearly upon the differences between their physical make up and neuro-muscular development. Behavioral traits and differences might come into play here, too. The skill of the catch is expected almost at an equal level and statistical proportions from both the boys and the girls in the towards the lower limit of the age group under study, however, with the advancement of age towards the upper limit, there is a marked increase in the number of boys who can perform it as compared to the number of girls who can perform it at the same age limit, and even the ratio of increasing skill acquisition of the catch among the boys with age is much higher than