Infants return to two-handed reaching when they are learning to walk.
The authors examined whether infants of about 1 year return to 2-handed reaching when they begin to walk independently. Infants (N = 9) were followed longitudinally before, during, and after their transition to upright locomotion. Every week, the infants' reaching responses and patterns of interlimb coordination were screened in 3 tasks involving different adaptive reaching responses. Before the onset of upright locomotion, the infants responded to each task adaptively. Following walking onset, they increased their rate of 2-handed responses in all tasks. The 2-handed responses declined when the infants gained better balance control. The results suggest that infants' return to 2-handed reaching is experience dependent. Those findings are discussed in terms of the integration of new developing motor skills into existing cognitive and motor repertoires.
Corbetta
Daniela
D
Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, 1362 Lambert, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. dcorbetta@sla.purdue.edu
Bojczyk
Kathryn E
KE
D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D018737:Hand Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D016138:Walking