ABSTRACT
Many activities combine walking with the interception of a target (e.g. reaching/ hitting a tennis ball). Successful performance of these tasks requires a fine-tuned organisation of the motor control system. For children with cerebral palsy (CP) who have motor disorders caused by damage to the brain, this requires a specific type of movement co-ordination. In this chapter a model is described (see figure 13.1), which is inspired by theories and ideas falling under the rubric of ecological psychology, that is used to understand and describe the organisation of movement co-ordination of children with spastic hemiplegia CP during interceptive actions. The model is derived from concepts and theories of Newell (1986), Gibson (1979) and Bernstein (1967) (for a discussion see chapter 12). It shows us how movement co-ordination emerges from the control of the multiple degrees of freedom (DF) of the biomechanical movement system (joints, muscles and nerves) and the perceptual system and, more importantly, the interaction between them in the form of information-movement couplings.
