From Children to Adults: Motor Performance across the Life-Span

Abstract

The life-span approach to development provides a theoretical framework to examine the general principles of life-long development. This study aims to investigate motor performance across the life span. It also aims to investigate if the correlations between motor tasks increase with aging. A cross-sectional design was used to describe the effects of aging on motor performance across age groups representing individuals from childhood to young adult to old age. Five different motor tasks were used to study changes in motor performance within 338 participants (7–79 yrs). Results showed that motor performance increases from childhood (7–9) to young adulthood (19–25) and decreases from young adulthood (19–25) to old age (66–80). These results are mirroring results from cognitive research. Correlation increased with increasing age between two fine motor tasks and two gross motor tasks. We suggest that the findings might be explained, in part, by the structural changes that have been reported to occur in the developing and aging brain and that the theory of Neural Darwinism can be used as a framework to explain why these changes occur.

Age-related differences in proprioceptive and visuo-proprioceptive function in relation to fine motor behaviour

“…Motor performance also approximately fits the quadratic function, as shown by Leversen et al (2012) in a study of 338 participants (7-79 years, cross-sectional study). Performance improved from childhood (7-9) to young adulthood (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) and then deteriorated in old age (66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80).…”

“…Performance improved from childhood (7-9) to young adulthood (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25) and then deteriorated in old age (66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80). The authors stressed that our knowledge of general development throughout the lifespan is still insufficient and few motor domain studies have been conducted (Leversen et al 2012). In psychology, motor control studies are underestimated and have been described by Rosenbaum (2005) as the ''Cinderella'' of psychological research.…”

Assessment of Motor Competence Across the Life Span

“…The knowledge base concerning the general principles of lifelong development is still insufficient and limited (Baltes et al, 2006;Thelen, 2005). One aspect of increasing the understanding of life span developmental processes is further methodological development of adequate assessment tools that are designed to measure individuals throughout the whole life-course (Leversen, Haga, & Sigmundsson, 2012). Research on motor development has been of great significance for our knowledge of general principles of human development (Thelen, 2000).…”

“…Qualitative changes will occur after further experience on this task as the quality of the performance is improved and refined. In older people, individual constraints such as increased reaction time, reduced vision, decline in muscle strength, or the lack of practice and stimuli (leading to a weakening of the neural network involved in the movement) could result in less precise and slower movements, explaining the functional decline in tasks that require fine and gross motor skills compared with the younger populations (Kleim & Jones, 2008;Leversen et al, 2012). In children and novices, practice and experience on executing the movement task could lead to qualitative improvements of the performance.…”

Why is it Difficult to Cross the Street While Talking?

“…Does this also change during development and aging? Figure 2 shows a very similar pattern to Figure 1, but in this case, the 338 participants were asked to place bricks on top of each other, to throw a bean bag at a target, to walk on a straight line as quickly as possible by always placing the front heel against the toes of the back foot, or to run in slopes around obstacles [2]. The researchers who performed this study tested 7-to 9-year-old as well as age groups from 19 to 80 years old.…”