Chapter #3 Summary.

                Chapter three begins with the importance of developing movement skills. One who would be considered a skillful mover, would be an individual who moves with control, efficiency, and coordination in tasks such as performance of fundamental or specialized movements. Failure to develop and refine movement skills in children during preschool and elementary school years often leads children to frustration and even failure. For example, bad habits can be formed by improper learning. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they cannot learn these skills later in life, it’s just easier to develop these skills during childhood.

                In this chapter, the different categories of movement are explained. The three categories of movement include stability, locomotion and manipulation. Stability movement skills are important because they are the foundation for the other two skills. They have a strong emphasis on maintaining equilibrium and balance during a movement task. One must maintain their equilibrium against the force of gravity. Locomotor movement skills include activities like running and skipping, in which the body is transported in a horizontal or vertical direction, going from one point to another. The final category of movement is manipulative movement. This category deals with either gross motor, or fine motor movement skills. Activities that deal with gross motor movements include throwing, catching, kicking, and many more. These movements are considered gross motor manipulation because it involves giving force to objects, or receiving force from objects. Fine motor manipulation deals with object – handling activities that stress motor control, precision and accuracy of movements. Some of these activities can include the tying of ones shoes, target archery, playing the violin, playing darts, and many more.

                There are many environmental factors that influence movement skills that are explained in this chapter. These include opportunity for practice, importance of encouragement, quality and clarity of instructions, and an individual’s environmental setting. Also, in this chapter it goes over the different levels of movement skill learning, and different stages a child comes across during development.