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).

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).

The advances of basic sciences combined with the perspectives of developmental neurology have recently modified the traditional outlook on the evolution of motor behaviour. The maturation of neuro-anatomic structures is studied nowadays as just one facet of a complex process: the various elements of innate global patterns, the acquisition of antigravitary schemes as well as manipulative and praxic skills, control of posture and gait, ocular motility and motricity, converge to create the present picture of a continuous adaptive interaction between the child's genotype and its environment. This book stimulates the debate and the exchange of concepts between researchers and clinical specialists.

This book is divided into Sections. Each Section is devoted to a particular theme in Motor Development and comprises two or more contributions. The order of presentation is largely fortuitous and does not reflect any value judgement on the part of the editors as to the importance of anyone theme in comparison to others addressed' in the book. This volume is to be seen as a companion volume to 'Motor Development in Children: Aspects of coordination and control' in which the more general issues in motor development presented during the Institute are published. Together, the two volumes provide both a general and a 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).

Motor development is an integral part of the developmental process. Understanding the organization of the sensory-motor system and its adaptations in response to environmental factors is a vital part of understanding individual development as a whole. This volume describes and discusses human motor development using longitudinal study methods, and from an interdisciplinary perspective.