Motor Development: Core Curricular Concepts

Abstract

Motor developmentalists study the processes that underlie change in behavior. There are at least two fundamental ways in which theory and data emanating from motor development are critical components of what undergraduate kinesiology majors should know. First is an emphasis on the lifespan. We are very different organisms as we progress through life; understanding how and why a behavior developed into the pattern we see helps us understand it better at any unique point in time. Second is the emphasis on the interaction of multiple factors on emergent behaviors. Interdependency is fundamental, regardless of the subsystem or age group of interest. Incumbent upon us as teaching faculty is to reinforce within and across our subdisciplines that our content is interrelated and must be integrated in order to fully understand concepts, contextualize the information, and creatively solve problems, whether they are clinical, instructional, or purely scientific.