ABSTRACT
The rate of acquisition for all voluntary movements during infancy may vary, but the differences among children for attaining prone locomotor movements are especially great. The reflex is a unique form of movement that is involuntary and subcortical; it is performed without conscious effort and without stimulation from the higher brain centers. Parents and others are familiar with many of the voluntary movements of infancy. The child’s successful and unsupported stand is frequently a highlight of infancy that parents eagerly anticipate. Reaching starts before the baby is born, with signs of reaching the hand to the face and withdrawing the arm as early as three months of gestation. In addition, like K. C. Soska and K. E. Adolph, the researchers believed that postural support and reaching are critical to the development of a number of advancing perceptual, intellectual, and social skills.
