ACTA FAC. MED. NAISS. 2004; 21 (4):253-257

   Review article

¹Lidija Dimitrijević, ²Bojko Bjelaković

¹Clinic of physical medicine and rehabilitation, child department, Clinical centre Niš
²Clinic of pediatrics, Clinical centre, Niš

    SUMMARY

    Motor development of a healthy newborn, infant and a small child goes on quite spontaneously, according to the natural laws and directly depends on anatomic and functional adequacy of the central nervous system (CNS). The course of this development is determined by genetically established patterns of development, but, at the same time, it is being stimulated by the stimuli from the outside world. The brain, as an organ responsible for integration and coordination, receives these stimuli and responds to them by automatic, complex reactions. The adoption of the basic motor skills (maintaining and head control, lateral transfers into a lying position, then sitting, standing, walking, crawling, grasping) goes on quite spontaneously. A child learns all the motor actions by itself and that is why it is not necessary to “TEACH” a child to sit, stand, grasp, walk… At eleven months of age, 90% of infants can independently assume the correct sitting position from which they pass into a slanted sitting to assume crawling position. From crawling position the infant returns into a sitting one. At the end of the eleventh and during the twelfth month, 90% of children begin to walk sideways with leaning on the objects. More than 50% of children ar twelve month of age can walk independently without support. Fifty percentage of children at twelve month of age can hold two legos in one hand, which requires high degree of hand adaptation to the very object.

    Key words: motor development, motor skills, infant