CHAPTER
20
Perceptual–Motor
Development
Barry W. Lavay and Joseph P. Winnick
Chapter 20
Perceptual–Motor Development
Chapter Outline
• Overview of the perceptual–motor process
• Understanding sensory systems
Perceptual–Motor Development
All movement activities are perceptual–motor
experiences. This process allows individuals to
provide meaning to sensory information and
formulate appropriate motor responses. It involves
a number of operational procedures:
• Receive
• Transmit
• Organize
• Integrate
• Attach
Perceptual–Motor Ability Deficits
Occurs among many individuals with various
disabilities and might include
• poor spatial orientation,
• difficulty with body awareness,
• immature body image,
• clumsiness or awkwardness,
• coordination deficits, and
• poor balance.
What Does the Research Say?
• 1960s and early 1970s: PM programs were strongly
advocated and believed to be a significant
improvement in academic and intellectual abilities.
• Research has not supported this notion (Gallahue
& Ozmun, 2006; Kavale & Mattison, 1983; Payne &
Issacs, 2007).
• However, research indicates clearly that PM
abilities might be attained through carefully
sequenced programs (Cheatum & Hammond, 2000;
Sherrill, 2004; Winnick, 1979).
• PM training is fundamental to many motor,
academic, and functional (ADL) skills.
Simplified Model
of the Perceptual–Motor Process
Perceptual–Motor Defined
• Perception: The monitoring and
interpretation of sensory information
resulting from the interaction between
sensory and CNS processes occurring at
the cognitive level (brain) that enables the
individual to derive meaning from
information
• Motor: The actual movement response or
act
• Summary: Everything we do is perceptual–
motor!
Hitting a Softball:
Example of a PM Skill
• Input: Includes ball speed, direction, spin,
and other flight characteristics.
• Integration: Information is transmitted to the
CNS, where it is perceived as a ball to be
hit.
• Output: Initiate the appropriate response—
swing and hit the ball.
• Feedback: If the pitch was missed,
adjustments to the swing are necessary in
future situations.
Sensorimotor Activity
• Occurs at a subcortical level and does not
involve meaning, interpretation, or corticallevel functioning.
• Motor responses to sensory input.
• Sensory integration results in perception
and other types of sensory data syntheses.
• Reflexes and postural reactions.
Ecological Approach
• Perception is specific to each individual.
• The environment is perceived directly in
terms of its utility for the perceiver (Gibson,
1977, 1979).
• Individuals perceive the environment in terms
of the actions they can exert on it—that is, the
affordances provided by the environment.
• Example: Children might perceive a chair to
crawl under, whereas adults perceive it as an
object to sit on (Burton, 1990; Davis &
Broadhead, 2007; Davis & Burton, 1991).
Perceptual–Motor Deficits
or Breakdowns
• Input:
Cannot adequately take in visual or auditory
information from the environment; thus
information does not appropriately reach
the CNS (e.g., deafness, blindness).
• Integration:
Impairs the functioning of the CNS and the
relevant information received and the ability
to process sensory input (e.g., LD, ADHD,
lack of motor planning).
(continued)
Perceptual–Motor Deficits
or Breakdowns (continued)
• Output:
Inappropriate functioning during previous
steps as well as conditions that influence
the transmission of information and
movement (e.g., CP, SPI lack of tactual and
vestibular perception).
• Feedback:
Unable to modify or correct behavior (e.g.,
faulty kinesthetic perception).
Analysis of Prominent Perceptual–Motor
Need and Deficit Areas
Facilitating and Nurturing
Perceptual–Motor Development
Preschoolers and young children (2 to 7
years)
• Movement exploration
• Guided discovery
• Open-ended tasks with more than one way
to respond
Teaching Purposeful
Perceptual–Motor Skills
1. Purposeful movement that is motivating
and performed in natural settings (e.g.,
kicking the ball into a goal in a soccer
lead-up activity or game)
2. Affordances in the environment to make
perceptual judgments and to assess the
accuracy of the judgments (e.g., “Can I
pass the ball to a teammate without it
being intercepted by a defensive player?”)
(Burton, 1987)
Sensory Systems
The sensory systems work collectively and
simultaneously to provide the individual
with the following information:
• Tactile
• Proprioceptive (kinesthetic)
• Visual
• Auditory
Promote the multisensory approach.
Tactile Perception
• Ability to interpret sensations from the
various layers of the skin surfaces of the
body
• Externally related and responds to touch,
feel, and manipulation
• Example: distinguishing wet and dry, hot
and cold, soft and hard, rough and smooth
(continued)
Tactile Perception (continued)
Disorganized tactile system
• Tactile defensive: sensitivity to normal
touch that causes a negative or painful
reaction
• Tactile deprived: have not received
necessary amounts of stimulation and crave
touch, seeking physical contact (i.e.,
weighted vest)
Proprioception
Sensory stimuli from skin, muscles, tendons,
joints, and vestibular sense receptors that are
in the categories of kinesthetic perception:
1. Body awareness
2. Laterality and verticality
3. Balance
Kinesthetic Perception
• The awareness and memory of movement and
position
• Internally related; develops from impulses that
originate from the body’s proprioceptors (i.e. ,
muscles, tendons, joints)
• The ability to know a movement, body position, or
action before executing it
• Feel the correctness of a movement
• Basic to all movement and associated with visual–
motor and auditory–motor abilities
Body Awareness
Allows people to derive meaning from
their body and includes the following:
• Body schema: where the body ends and
external space begins
• Body image: feelings one has about one’s
body
• Body concept: knowledge one has about
one’s body
Visual Perceptual–Motor Development
Ability to see, fixate, and track; includes
• visual figure–ground perception,
• spatial relations,
• visual constancy, and
• visual–motor coordination.
Visual Figure–Ground Perception
• Distinguish the main figure or target from
its background.
• Differentiate and integrate parts of objects
to form meaningful wholes.
• Shift attention and ignore irrelevant stimuli.
• Examples: picking out a specific letter of
the alphabet from a field of extraneous
items; tracking moving objects, such as a
ball to be hit; observing lines, boundaries,
diagrams, or footprints.
Spatial Relationships
• Locate objects in space relative to oneself
or self-space (egocentric localization).
• Example: direction, distance, and depth.
• Locate objects relative to one another or
general space (objective localization).
• Example: position on a court.
Visual Perceptual–Motor Constancy
• Recognize objects despite variations in
their presentation.
• Recognize the sameness of an object that
might vary in appearance, size, color,
texture, brightness, or shape.
• Example: a football spiraling in the air.
Visual–Motor Coordination
• Ability to coordinate vision with body
movements
• Combination of visual with tactile and
kinesthetic perception (not exclusively
visual ability)
• Eye–limb coordination (eye–hand, eye–foot)
• Examples:
– Classroom—cutting, pasting, finger painting,
drawing, tracing
– Physical education—throwing, catching, kicking,
striking
Auditory Perceptual–Motor Development
Built on auditory acuity and perception and
includes
• auditory figure–ground perception,
• sound localization and discrimination, and
• temporal auditory perception.
Auditory Figure–Ground Perception
• Distinguish and attend to relevant auditory
stimuli against a background of general
auditory stimuli.
• Ignore irrelevant stimuli (noisy gymnasium)
and attend to relevant stimuli (teacher
directions).
• Example: determining a teacher signal in
order to transition.
Auditory Discrimination
• Recognize an auditory stimulus as the same
under varying presentations.
• Recognize and discriminate among
variations of auditory stimuli presented in a
temporal series, as well as auditory
perceptual constancy.
• Examples: distinguishing frequencies,
qualities, and amplitudes of sound;
distinguishing pitch, loudness, and
constancy of auditory stimuli.
Sound Localization
• Ability to determine the source or direction
of sounds in the environment
• Examples: finding the open player calling
for the ball, blindfolded players attempting
to stop a ball that is emitting a sound
Temporal Auditory Perception
• Ability to recognize and discriminate among
variations of auditory stimuli presented in
time
• Distinguishing rate, emphasis, tempo, and
order of auditory stimuli
• Example: difficulties in rhythmic movement,
dance, and singing games
Auditory–Motor Coordination
• Ability to coordinate auditory stimuli with
body movements
• Examples: responding to a beat in music
(e.g., ear–foot coordination) or to a
particular cadence (e.g., football signals),
performing a routine to a musical
accompaniment
Application Example
See application examples in the textbook for
ideas regarding fun, stimulating activities
designed to promote the sensory systems:
• Spiderweb: spatial awareness
• Walk the Pirate’s Plank: dynamic balance
• Drive Your Car: directionality
• Surprise Bag: tactile awareness
Typical Components
and Activities Associated With
Sensorimotor Development