Problems in Movement Skill Development.

Problems in Movement Skill Development The author of this book presents reviews of several sets of research literature on selected problems in movement, as a basis for extending our thinking about movement skill development. A general perspective on movement skill and its development is provided in an introductiory chapter and is the framework within which problems are reviewed. Movement skill is the term used to identify a movement that is intentional, goal-directed, and adaptive. These movements involve input and direction from sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes that are viewed as personal resources with separate developmental courses.

Chapter 2 is an analysis of the movement skill problems of children with cerebral palsy who have a disruption of neural centers that leads to poor movement control. The movement skill problems of children who are blind (blindness causes a major sensory-perceptual disruption) are analyzed in chapter 3; problems of children who are mentally retarded and whose disruption in cognitive development makes it difficult for them to use movement skills are reviewed in chapter 4. The next two chapters focus on types of movement skill problems. Apraxia is reviewed in chapter 5, as a means of studying movement planning errors; the general movement skill problems of awkwardness and clumsiness are reviewed in chapter 6. The studies in these chapters demonstrate that similar neural disruptions can lead to quite different kinds of behavioral problems. Because the research literature in each chapter is not linked to the other literature sets, the concluding chapter brings the findings into a larger, more comprehensive focus on movement skill problems, providing implications for movement skill development.

Each literature set includes both soft and hard lines of research, which seem to be, respectively, clinical and experimental in nature. The experimental literature receives greater attention. The book is not an "easy read" because the studies represent divergent perspectives and involve subjects that seldom are comparable across studies, with problems that are defined in multiple ways. Although health care personnel seem to direct their attention to the control of basic movements, educators and psychologists seem interested in how movements are adapted to an|ironmental conditions and task demands. Persons who have a broad interest in movement skill performance and the problems of conducting research on the development of movement skill should find the book useful. The authors do not offer suggestions of immediate usefulness in the clinical management of movement problems, but they do provide some ideas about how to minimize the methodological problems of movement skill development research.

The book is organized logically. The figures and tables are well-placed and make reading the text easier. Both an author index and a subject index are included. I would have preferred more illustrations; I also would have preferred the references to be listed at the end of each chapter rather than at the close of the book.