Physical Education for All

Developing Physical Education in the Curriculum for Pupils with Special Difficulties

David A. Sugden, Helen C. Wright

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134098095
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First Published in 1999. This book offers a practical approach to te teaching of Physical Education to children who have severe learning difficulties and profound motor learning difficulties. The authors consider the 'learning to move, moving to learn' continuum as a route forward and include strategies for children who also have emotional and behavioural difficulties. With information on motor development and advice on planning, teaching and evaluating a PE programme, the book provides practical support for all those working in this and related fields. Although largely aimed at those working in special schools, the book also recognises the difficulties that children with special educational needs encounter in mainstream schools.

Chapter 1

Applied Motor Development

Development as a dynamic process

We have deliberately attached the word ‘applied’ to the title of this chapter as it indicates our belief that motor development is not a static entity, i.e. a description of ages and stages of various motor abilities. It does fulfil this function but it can also provide a framework and background for the work we do with children. It helps us anticipate progression in children; yet we should be careful not to be slavishly locked in to what textbooks say are the usual stages of development for certain activities. For example, we know that creeping and/or crawling precedes walking, but we also know that a number of children do neither before they walk. We do have a number of guidelines for motor development in children and these can help us prepare for our work; however, we do need to anticipate the unusual, that which is not in the expected frame of reference, and adapt our plans accordingly.

Development, maturation and learning

The term development refers to the process by which children change during their lifespan, and motor development involves children adapting their motor behaviour as they move towards different levels of competence. These changes are a function of a number of variables, which include the resources the child possesses and which are biologically determined to develop; a process we usually call maturation. A second variable is related to life’s experiences and we usually refer to this as learning. In child development literature, debate has long been ongoing as to the relative merits and influences of these two variables. What is not in doubt is the fact that both maturation and learning contribute substantially to development, which is a complex mixture of maturational predispositions and both intentional and incidental learning which makes up life’s experiences. To illustrate this, imagine a hypothetical child with some kind of biological disorder. If left alone, the child will develop slowly and differently and may acquire actions that are not commensurate with the demands of daily life. However, if this child is presented with situations which help him learn in both an intentional and incidental manner, then the child acquires new skills which are then fed back into his maturation-learning process, forming a positive influence on his development.

Dynamics and transactions

We see development as a dynamic process which is influenced in multiple ways and which itself then influences the everyday functioning of the child. There are no simplistic one-to-one situations; development is set in a maze of complex interactions, mutually influencing each other and taking the child forward within a dynamic context. Change one part of the child’s development and the influence of this will pervade across the whole child. Dynamics will vary across different children. In some, biological influences are very strong, and large environmental changes are required in order to influence development. In others, small changes will produce great gains. Knowledge of the developing individual child is all-important.

Another characteristic of development is that changes are transactional in nature. This is a more complex line than simply taking an interactional approach. Most people would accept that the environment and the individual interact to produce a final outcome; thus different levels of environmental conditions interplay with differing levels of individual resources to produce a final outcome. A transactional view takes this some steps further and is very much in line with what has come to be termed a dynamical systems view of development. Previous views of development were locked into deterministic stage theories in which hereditary and maturational theories dominated the developmental process. Following this viewpoint, motor development in children with disabilities would be relatively fixed and governed by the particular impairment the child evidences. In contrast, transactional, dynamic theories have indeterminacy as a characteristic where development moves along in complex ways, with each input influencing the whole. This transactional process means that individuals and environments change in relation to each other, which leads to a different set of relationships, perceptions and cognitions, as opposed to those that are fixed by levels or are linear in nature.

This dynamic interplay involves the resources of the child and his environmental context. A point we shall return to later is that the environmental context can be divided into two major parts: the first concerns the task at hand and the second concerns the social environment in which the task is presented. These transactions continually facilitate change in the child and these changes are non-linear in nature: that is, they are not a specified one-to-one change as a result of some form of intervention. For example, if we examine the types of changes that are often seen in children, we can list those of addition, substitution, modification, inclusion and mediation. Addition occurs when children add many permanent behaviours to their repertoire without displacing existing behaviours. When a child uses the thumb and finger for grasping, it is often added to the already established palmar grasp. Substitution is often seen when a baby replaces babbling by single words. Modification occurs when an established skill is used in different situations to adapt to differing contexts, such as the modification of the walking pattern to travel over uneven surfaces. Inclusion occurs when a newly established skill is used in different situations, such as the use of the thumb and finger in opposition to flick a light switch or in the dynamic tripod when drawing or writing. In complex situations, children use one behaviour to influence another, such as the use of rehearsal to improve memory functions.

On examination, what appears to be a change in one particular area exerting a direct influence on a skill is much more complex. The changes are dynamic in nature and are not limited to the area of concern. One part of the system will change and this in turn influences the rest of the system. These changes are non-linear in nature, in that a given piece of stimulation does not have a direct linear one-to-one effect on the child: a small alteration in context may have major and multiple effects on the child and these effects are transactional and dynamic. A simple example that as teachers we can all relate to involves the severity of any disability. We have all been involved with children who have quite severe impairments but, because of other factors, such as motivation, personality etc. these impairments do not have the same debilitating effects that are present in other children who have the same degree of impairment. It is the transactional effect of the underlying resources and the contexts which provide the eventual outcomes.

Our view is that development is a dynamical process with a number of transactional components. These are individually determined and the optimistic part is that parents and teachers can control many of these components. Obviously we cannot control genetic make-up, but the behaviours which result from dynamical interplay can be massively influenced. We can choose the type of task and place it in any context we consider appropriate; this in turn will transact with the individual resources producing non-linear changes in the child. Sometimes these changes will result in rapid increases in ability in one type of skill; at other times the observed result in that skill is minimal, but changes are seen in other parts of the child’s repertoire. It is a constantly shifting scene.

In children with severe difficulties, development is often slower and does not reach the same level as their peers. This does not mean that development is consistently slower across a wide range of abilities, but it does mean that in some areas it is useful to examine motor development at fundamental levels, which not only give a more detailed description of the child’s abilities, but also provides us with pointers to directions we may take when developing a physical activity programme for the children. For this reason we have chosen to provide descriptions of children’s motor development at this fundamental level and examine those early skills involved in posture, locomotion and manual skills.

Movement skill development in children

Reflexes and spontaneous movements

At birth, children have minimal control of independent movements of their arms, legs and head: they cannot roll over, sit up or change position from where they are placed. The movements they have appear to fall into two different types: reflexes and spontaneous movements.

Reflexes

These are involuntary, stereotyped movements usually in response to some external stimuli such as light, sound, touch, or pressure on a body location. Some are present before birth and a number gradually emerge at birth or shortly after and in the first few months of life. Reflexes are expected to appear at particular ages and disappear at a predetermined rate. Early reflexes are used as developmental indicators and evaluated according to intensity and quality, with too brisk or too soft a reaction being an abnormal or negative sign. In some reflexes, a lack of symmetry or incomplete reactions are qualitative signs of abnormality, and these abnormal signs are used as indications that specific aspects of the nervous system may be developing in an inappropriate manner. An example of this is the tonic neck reflex (TNR). This covers many complex variations related to stretching the neck muscles and joints. The asymmetrical TNR is the position assumed by the legs and the arms when the infant is turned to the right or to the left. The leg and arm extend on the side of the head’s turn and flex on the opposite side to look like the position of a fencer on guard. The head is then facing an extended arm that places the hand of that arm in view of the baby, which may be important in establishing eye—hand coordination. The difference in arm movements, in which one arm is extended and the other is flexed, may be useful in differentiating arm functioning for later coordination of arm movements. This reflex starts just before birth at about six to seven months of foetal age and should disappear six to seven months after birth, with indications that development is not progressing smoothly if it persists for much longer. The issue here is that the persisting reflex not only hinders flexible and adaptive movements, but may also indicate other difficulties. In many children with disabilities the persistence of reflexes and the sudden occurrence of reflexes are issues that will need to be addressed when devising movement programmes.

Other reflexes stay with us for life and often provide some kind of adaptive functioning. Examples of these include the pupillar reflex and the flexor withdraw reflex. Reflexes often function together to help control more complex movements: righting reflexes, for example, involve a set of related reflexes which work together to maintain postural control. They are usually in response to some movement of the body and as such most develop after birth, often stay with us throughout life and are a fundamental part of our motor control system.

The palmar grasp reflex is one that is familiar to us and which shows the precursors of later voluntary manual skills. When a finger is placed across the palm of a baby, he will flex his fingers and grasp the adult finger, often with enough strength for the adult to be able to lift him up. This reflex is present in foetal life and disappears at around five or six months after birth, when it is replaced by more voluntary control of grasping. This allows for more adaptive control and the young infant can not only choose whether to grasp the finger, but also becomes quite adept at reaching and grasping at objects, something we will discuss later. Although it is easy to describe, it is difficult to explain the progression from reflexive to voluntary control, but we can note that the changes take place to fulfil a similar function, e.g. grasping but with voluntary control, where the whole grasping process is more flexible, with adaptive grasping behaviours of anticipating when to grasp and when to release the grasp.

In physical activities, there are many occasions when reaching and grasping is used, such as hanging from bars, throwing and catching balls and other objects, working with a partner, passing objects to each other, etc. As we will describe in the next chapter, choice of task is crucial for two reasons: first, if done correctly and at the right level, it allows the child to participate immediately in the activity; second, the variety of tasks requiring different grips may eventually lead to increasing the range of grips the child possesses, thereby increasing the range of activities in which he can participate.

Spontaneous movements

It used to be thought that movements other than reflexes in young babies were random explorations of possibilities rather than movements with any kind of purpose and structure. These included leg kicking, arm waving and body rocking, not to achieve any particular goal, but simply to experience movement. These movements appeared to be spontaneous rather than reflexive in that they were internally generated and did not require an external stimulus. Over the last 15 to 20 years, these movements have been systematically analysed, and a number of interesting observations have arisen from this analysis. These studies examined what are called rhythmical movement stereotypes, which are movements of parts of the body which repeat at regular short intervals. In older people, movements such as rocking and swaying are regarded as abnormal, but young babies seem to enjoy these movements even though there is a lack of apparent purpose to them. In some of the early research, young babies were observed over a period of a year analysing 500 hours of observations and finding nearly 50 types of different stereotypes, starting with small numbers in the early weeks but increasing rapidly between the ages of 16 and 44 weeks. The movements included different types of leg kicking, foot rubbing, arm waving, arm banging, hand flexing, finger flexing and rocking, all which were logged and which have different times of onset, peak activity and disappearance. Spontaneous movements may be precursors to later development in much the same way as reflexes provide the basis for some types of voluntary control. For example, it has been shown that reflexive stepping is a precursor to walking and that spontaneous kicking shows much the same spatial and temporal structure as mature human locomotion and thus could also be a precursor to walking.

We have detailed some of the early developments in babies and infants for a number of reasons. First, in some children with disabilities these actions are often seen in their delayed and different development. Second, it is useful for planning programmes to have a general idea of what a child’s progression might be. Third, recognising the actions will not only remind us of the types of movements in the child’s repertoire but can also help us present situations in which these movements can be enhanced or diminished according to need. This is a classic example of the dynamic nature of development in which we as teachers have a part to play.

Manual control

Manual control is a general term used to describe the way in which the arm and hand are used to control objects. These are two bodily units that combine to provide the flexible actions of the upper limbs. It is useful to split their functions in order to analyse the precise combinations of actions that can be achieved. The first function the arm provides is that of support, in which the arm lin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Applied Motor Development
• 2. Participation and Learning
• 3. Teaching the Physical Education Lesson
• 4. Evaluation of the Physical Education Programme
• 5. Physical Education and Sporting Activities Outside the School
• Bibliography