Movement patterns of limb coordination in infant rolling

Abstract

Infants must perform dynamic whole-body movements to initiate rolling, a key motor skill. However, little is known regarding limb coordination and postural control in infant rolling. To address this lack of knowledge, we examined movement patterns and limb coordination during rolling in younger infants (aged 5-7 months) that had just begun to roll and in older infants (aged 8-10 months) with greater rolling experience. Due to anticipated difficulty in obtaining measurements over the second half of the rolling sequence, we limited our analysis to the first half. Ipsilateral and contralateral limbs were identified on the basis of rolling direction and were classified as either a stationary limb used for postural stability or a moving limb used for controlled movement. We classified the observed movement patterns by identifying the number of stationary limbs and the serial order of combinational limb movement patterns. Notably, older infants performed more movement patterns that involved a lower number of stationary limbs than younger infants. Despite the wide range of possible movement patterns, a small group of basic patterns dominated in both age groups. Our results suggest that the fundamental structure of limb coordination during rolling in the early acquisition stages remains unchanged until at least 8-10 months of age. However, compared to younger infants, older infants exhibited a greater ability to select an effective rotational movement by positioning themselves with fewer stationary limbs and performing faster limb movements.

Multiple patterns of infant rolling in limb coordination and ground contact pressure

“…Rolling over in early human development is a dynamic whole-body movement with multiple body parts and interactions with the floor (Shirley 1931;Gesell and Thompson 1934;McGraw 1941;Bayley 1993). Most previous studies on rolling over described movements mainly from the viewpoint of kinematics (Richter et al 1989;VanSant 1990;Yamamoto 2011;Kobayashi et al 2016). For example, a study on adult rolling from the supine to the lying position showed various combined kinematic patterns of the body parts, including the upper limb, lower limb, head, and trunk (Richter et al 1989).…”

“…intensively studied (Adolph et al 2018), understanding of rolling over has not been deepened in the last decade. Kobayashi et al (2016) used a three-dimensional (3-D) motion analysis system to measure the movements of several body parts in infants and classified kinematic patterns and their developmental changes. Thus, previous studies showed the kinematic characteristics of rolling over.…”

“…The purpose of this study was to clarify the correspondence between the kinematic and kinetic patterns in infant rolling. In a kinematic analysis, Kobayashi et al (2016) examined the developmental changes of the kinematic patterns of the limbs in infants aged 5-7 months, who had just began to roll over, and in infants aged 8-10 months, who had greater rolling experience. In this study, we classify the kinematic patterns of rolling in newly recruited infants aged 9-10 months using the same procedure as that used by Kobayashi et al (2016).…”

“…In a kinematic analysis, Kobayashi et al (2016) examined the developmental changes of the kinematic patterns of the limbs in infants aged 5-7 months, who had just began to roll over, and in infants aged 8-10 months, who had greater rolling experience. In this study, we classify the kinematic patterns of rolling in newly recruited infants aged 9-10 months using the same procedure as that used by Kobayashi et al (2016). First, the ipsilateral and contralateral limbs are identified with respect to the rolling direction and classified as either a stationary or moving limb.…”

Experimental Research with Combination of Whole Brain Teaching and Basketball Techniques

“…It is indicated by numerous literatures that the migration effect of alternately training of two-side limbs shall be apparently higher than the training effect of merely one-side limb (Raza et al, 2016). Some articles also refer to the empirical research by taking two-side migration as a teaching method (Milovanovic et al, 2015), and point out that two-side migration has facilitation to sports skills of student, development of coordination, sport injury prevention and reduction and learning interest cultivation (Kobayashi et al, 2016). Two-side migration of sports skills is a part of the whole brain teaching content, and it has positive effect on teaching promotion in the sports teaching practice (Gooijers et al, 2014).…”