Infant Motor Development: Walking Experience Report (Assessment)

Infant’s motor development depends on routine exercise and child rearing. We can develop a related treatment for gait modification. Posture setting influences a child’s walking experience (Witherington, Campos, Anderson, Lejeune, & Seah, 2005). The article presents different scenarios about infant development. We will study the factors that affect the decisions of a child. Surveys revealed that newly walking infants could walk through risky slopes and heights without fear. Such development can be attributed to the infant’s locomotor experience. While newly walking infants show no sign of fear when placed at heights, experienced ones refused to walk or stand-alone. Researchers suggest the development of the locomotor experience as a reason for their decisions. Surveys suggested that new walking experience influenced the judgment of infants. To test the assumptions stated above, the article will review the experiment carried out on newly walking infants.

Research questions

1. What motivates newly walking infants to avoid slopes more than the crawlers?
2. What is the effect of locomotor experience on infants?
3. How can we develop an infant’s locomotor experience?

The experiment was conducted on forty infant. Ages of the participants varied between 293 and 398 days. The participants were categorized into crawlers, infants with walking experience, and experienced crawlers. Newly walking infants were categorized as experienced crawlers. The experimenter assigned experienced crawlers based on the parent’s report. The experimenter observed the participants at the onset of their walking experience. (Witherington et al., 2005). Infants were tested across a virtual height without support. A virtual cliff tool was used to test the participants. During the trial session, participants were videotaped. The experimenter tested infants on deep and shallow boards.

During the first trial, the parents of each participant placed their wards on the virtual cliff board. Eye contact with the infants was minimized to prevent distraction. The length of the cliff board was 38 x 38 cm. Coder blind was used to verify the results. For the trial to be successful, the participant must either walk on two legs or crawl on four limbs. Analysis of the experiments showed no significant difference between the ages of the participants (Witherington et al., 2005). Crawlers crossed deep and shallow cliffs without fear. Newly walking infants refused to cross the deep side. Experienced crawlers preferred the shallow cliff to the deep side (Witherington et al., 2005).

References

Kretch K., & Adolph K. (2013). No bridge too high: Infants decide whether to cross based on the probability of falling not the severity of the potential fall. New York, USA: Department of Psychology, New York University. Web.

Witherington D., Campos J., Anderson D., Lejeune L., & Seah E. (2005). Avoidance of heights on the visual cliff in newly walking infants. Albuquerque, Mexico: Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico. Web.