SUNY CORTLAND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT LAB

Spring 2010 – Professor Yang

Stability:  Lab One

Monday, Special Project

2/8/11

Brandi Balcom

Name: ____________________________________                         Date: _______________        Lab Group Day and #: __________

Tasks

A. To observe the interaction between St. Mary’s students and Cortland students.

B. To get to “know” some of the students at St. Mary’s through play and participation.

C. To make yourself aware of Stability (static and dynamic movements) across the different phases of motor development (Table 1.6, page 21 of Gallahue text)

TODAY IS FAIRLY INFORMAL! Have fun but be purposeful, try to learn a little about your students including their names.

Schedule:        

TASK A – Gross and Fine Motor Observation:  Please answer the following questions, all responses must be typed:

Observe the interaction between St. Mary’s students and your peers (Cortland students).  Try to get an idea of the behaviors of the St. Mary’s students – Do they listen well? Do they remain on task? What do they attend to?  What motivates them to play?

1. Based upon observation, what are the differences in motor behavior and  social between the St. Mary’s students you observed?  What differences did you observe between grade levels, gender, and ability?  Do you think that grade level, gender, and ability have any influence on motor behavior?

        The difference between motor behavior and social behavior is that motor behavior is how the individual child develops and moves, social behavior is how the child interacts with their peers while playing games or talking. There were many differences between the grade levels, ability and genders.  While I was playing basketball over on one side, there was only one female student involved, the others were on the wall talking to each other. The boys were more involved with games that required physical endurance and skill. Most of the girls tended to not want to play games that involved getting sweaty while the boys did not care because they liked competition. Younger students tended to want stay surrounded by others their own age, and with games that involved a lot of running, like tag. I believe that the factors of gender, age and ability do have an influence on motor behavior because the older that you get you develop more muscles and coordination, males usually have more muscle while girls sometimes have more coordination. The ability of a child develops from their motor behavior, so that plays an important role.

2.  Based upon your observation, what fine motor activities did you observe (describe these) when watching the St. Mary’s students?  Were there differences between age?  Gender? Ability?  

        When some of the students were leaving there were students who zipped their zippers on their jackets which is an example of a fine motor skill. There were many pre-school and younger students who were not able to tie their shoes so an after school staff member had to help them or our peers, but the older students were able to tie their shoes fine. Age plays a major role in fine motor development because as you get older you are able to grasp things more strongly and are able to follow patterns, for example being able to tie a shoe. During this lab I was in the gym the whole time, but if I went down to the cafeteria or went to the pre-kindergarten room I am sure that there would be many more fine motor skills because they are learning the skills that many of the older students already know. I feel as if there were not many differences with gender because everyone eventually learns the same skills. With ability there was a difference, but I feel as if ability and age go hand in hand because they are so closely related, the older you are the greater ability that you will have.