Transcript 8.7

Perception plays a more important role in another approach to motor skills development—the Perception-Action approach, which was inspired by the work of Jane and Eleanor Gibson.  For them, there is a strong correlation between our perception of the world around us and our ability to perform movement within it.  In other words, our ability to move is not just down to the physical development of our bodies, but also our perceptual ability.  For an action to be planned and executed successfully, we need to have perceptual information about certain properties of the environment, our bodies and the relationship between the two.  At the same time, we usually acquire sensory information through the use of movement.  For example, we may use exploratory movement of body parts such as the hands, feet, eyes and head to generate perceptual information.  In a similar way, actions generate more information for perceptual systems.  Furthermore, motor development does not stop after infancy.  After mastering basic postural, manipulative and locomotor skills, children acquire many more abilities: writing, playing an instrument, etc.  While movement is stiff, wasteful and uncoordinated at first, with practice it becomes progressively more rhythmical, smooth, and efficient.