This volume attempts to bring together a collection of current approaches to, and related empirical investigations on, the development of coordination in the first two years of life. It will be of interest to scientists and students in, for example, biology, human movement sciences, kinesiology, psychology, pediatrics, physiology, physical education, physical therapy and robotics.Contributors include those with established reputations in the field, as well as young authors, who are beginning to make their mark. Their efforts resulted in twenty chapters, of which seventeen were invited. The chapters have been divided into four sections. The first chapter is intended to outline the structure of the book.

Co-ordination of movement plays a key role in human development and is an important area in sport and health sciences. This book looks in detail at how children develop basic skills, such as walking and reaching for objects, and more complex skills such as throwing and catching a ball accurately or riding a bicycle. Development of Movement Co-ordination in Children is informed by five major theoretical perspectives and are explained in an introductory chapter: * neural maturation * information processing * direct perception * dynamic systems * constraint theory. The international contributions are brought together under the headings of ergonomics, health sciences and sport. Focusing on practical applications, individual chapters cover many different aspects of movement behaviour and development, ranging from children's over-estimation of their physical abilities and the links to injury proneness, to the co-ordination of kicking techniques. Both normal and abnormal development is considered. This text will be of considerable interest to students, teachers and professionals in the fields of sport science, kinesiology, physical education, ergonomics and developmental psychology.

Oller constructs a new infrastructural model of vocal communication systems that permits provocative reconceptualizations of the ways infant vocalizations progress systematically toward speech, insightful comparaisons between..

This text explains the principles of developmental exercise science, assessment of performance, the promotion of young people's health and well-being, and the clinical diagnosis and management of sports injuries in children and adolescents.

This volume contains a number of contributions, which concern basic issues in the field of brain-behavioural development in the human, especially with regard to the young child. They have been written by distinguished scientists, active in this field, who have all been participating in an Erasmus teachers exchange program, entitled 'Biopsychology of Development' (ICP-NL-3026/14). This volume is the product of this cooperation. The book is intended for scientists in this and related fields as well as for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, as a means of updating their knowledge about human brain-behaviour development. It offers a contemporary review, methodologically and theoretically, of some basic issues in early human brain-behaviour development. Attention is paid to normal development and also to deviance as exemplified by discussions on child abuse and on early development of preterms and children of deaf mothers. For the title of the book we have choosen for the term 'Developmental Psychology' with as a subtitle 'biopsychological perspectives' in order to express our interest in the basic requirements in the organism for an optimal adaptation during ontogeny as well as in the mechanisms underlying maladaptive behaviour. The term may indicate that we are not just focusing on 'higher brain functions' which would be suggested by the term 'Developmental Neuropsychology' . Further, it is meant to express our interest in the integrated study of normal and deviant development, without a particular focus on abnormality, which would be suggested by the term 'Developmental Psychopathology'.

The term Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is used to describe a group of children who have difficulty. with tasks involving movement such that it interferes with their daily living or academic progress. As with other developmental disorders such as autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder and dyslexia, DCD is now a prominent concern of both researchers and practitioners. This text is aimed at both researchers and professionals who work in a practical manner with the condition and includes professionals in health, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, health visitors, paediatricians, and - in the educational field - teachers and others who are in daily contact with the children - their parents. The essence of the text is that work with children should be guided by research evidence driving the clinical practice which in turn raisies more questions for research. The authors in this text have both experience in research and are engaged in the day-to-day clinical work with children and bring both of these to bear in the chapters they have written.

This book is divided into sections. Each section is devoted to a particular issue in Motor Development and comprises two or more contributions. The order of presentation mirrors the order of presentation at the Institute and thus is not entirely fortuitous! Nevertheless, it does not reflect any value judgement on the part of the editors as to the importance of anyone issue in comparison to others addressed in the book. This volume is to be seen as a companion volume to 'Themes in Moto!' Development' in which the more specific topics presented during the Institute are published. Together, the two volumes provide both a general and theme specific approach to this expanding field of knowledge. XI PREFACE Books and conferences, on what in North America is euphemistically termed motor development, have been few and far between in the past 25 years. This is not to say that the study of how children acquire and develop motor skills has not been a subject on which scientists have focused their attention. In the United States in the 1930's and 1940's, Bayley (1935) and Gesell and Amatruda (1947) described and scaled the rates at which young children acquired motor skills. In Europe, the development of childrens' motor behaviour was of theoretical interest to Piaget (1952).

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

This multidisciplinary volume features many of the world's leading experts of infant development, who synthesize their research on infant learning and behaviour, while integrating perspectives across neuroscience, socio-cultural context, and policy. It offers an unparalleled overview of infant development across foundational areas such as prenatal development, brain development, epigenetics, physical growth, nutrition, cognition, language, attachment, and risk. The chapters present theoretical and empirical depth and rigor across specific domains of development, while highlighting reciprocal connections among brain, behavior, and social-cultural context. The handbook simultaneously educates, enriches, and encourages. It educates through detailed reviews of innovative methods and empirical foundations and enriches by considering the contexts of brain, culture, and policy. This cutting-edge volume establishes an agenda for future research and policy, and highlights research findings and application for advanced students, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers with interests in understanding and promoting infant development.