Development of the coordination between postureand manual
control
Jeffrey M. Haddad a,, Laura J. Claxton a, Rachel Keen b, Neil E.
Berthier c,Gary E. Riccio d, Joseph Hamill d, Richard E. A. Van
Emmerik d
a Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, IN 47906, USAb Department of Psychology, University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USAc Department of Psychology,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USAd Department of
Kinesiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003,
USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:Received 3 November 2010Revised 1 August
2011Available online xxxx
Keywords:BalanceManual precisionDevelopmentManual
controlPostural controlCoordination
a b s t r a c t
Studies have suggested that proper postural control is essential
forthe development of reaching. However, little research has
exam-ined the development of the coordination between posture
andmanual control throughout childhood. We investigated the
coordi-nation between posture and manual control in children (7-
and10-year-olds) and adults during a precision fitting task as
taskconstraints became more difficult. Participants fit a block
throughan opening as arm kinematics, trunk kinematics, and center
ofpressure data were collected. During the fitting task, the
precision,postural, and visual constraints of the task were
manipulated.Young children adopted a strategy where they first move
theirtrunk toward the opening and then stabilize their trunk
(freezedegrees of freedom) as the precision manual task is being
per-formed. In contrast, adults and older children make
compensatorytrunk movements as the task is being performed. The
10-year-oldswere similar to adults under the less constrained task
conditions,but they resembled the 7-year-olds under the more
challengingtasks. The ability to either suppress or allow postural
fluctuationsbased on the constraints of a suprapostural task begins
to developat around 10 years of age. This ability, once developed,
allows chil-dren to learn specific segmental movements required to
completea task within an environmental context.
2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
0022-0965/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights
reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2011.08.002
Corresponding author. Fax: 765 496 1239.E-mail address:
[email protected] (J.M. Haddad).
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology xxx (2011) xxxxxx
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Journal of Experimental ChildPsychology
journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ jecp
Please cite this article in press as: Haddad, J. M., et al.
Development of the coordination between posture andmanual control.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (2011),
doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2011.08.002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.08.002mailto:[email protected]://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.08.002http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00220965http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jecphttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.08.002
