ABSTRACT
Motor development is often described in terms of developmental milestones, that is the age at which the 'average' child is expected to perform such skills as walking, skipping, drawing or tying shoe laces with a double bow. Evidence for a general motor factor 'Motor G' was not found. This means that perceptual-motor ability does not depend on a single, global motor process. Individual differences in the rate of development of motor behaviour, and the attained level of skills must depend on the development of specific perceptual or motor abilities. Finally, children suffering from perceptual motor disabilities can now be diagnosed in terms of causative factors rather than being restricted to observation of symptoms. With the aid of the Perceptual Motor Abilities Test (PMAT) a perceptual motor profile can be drawn up, comparing the child's performance on each test task with the expected level for his age.
