ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some trends and issues that have dominated thinking and research in motor system development. Historically, three main themes emerge. It includes, developmentalists have turned to theory to guide research on infant motor acts, a shift has occurred from studying movement solely as product to studying movement as mediating mechanism, and conceptual and research emphasis has been attached to motor changes that occur early in the first year of life. The chapter focuses on the shifts to the time span when prehension and locomotion become functionally mature. Signs indicate increased flexibility of motor behavior and changing potentials for long-term environmental influences. It discusses the contributions of locomotion to self-awareness and of prehension to intellectual development. Functional maturation of prehension and upright locomotion almost immediately spell adaptability and increase of self-generated options. Freed of many attentional demands required of early forms of motor acts, older infants turn their energies to objects, consequences of acts, and environs.
