Physiological Needs and Safety: Motor Skills and Reflexes
Although infants require the support of others to live, they are born with motor skills and reflexes to help them survive. These motor skills and reflexes fall under the base of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as Physiological Needs and Safety. Reflexes are involuntary responses to stimulus such as breathing or shivering when its cold outside. Babies fulfill the physiological need for food through the root and suck reflexes. Because newborns don't have the mental capacity to understand where and how to get food they rely on rooting to find the food source and the sucking reflex to breastfeed. The bradycardic response is the ability of babies to automatically hold their breath and open their eyes when placed underwater. This same response can also be seen when blowing on a babies face. The grasp reflex, a more known reflex, is when a baby grasps on to things placed in his or her hand. The muscles in the baby's hand are just strong enough to support the baby's weight, thus protecting himself from falling. To help babies be ready for when it is time to walk they are born with the walking reflex in which the baby will naturally put one foot in front of the other if they are supported and on a flat surface.
"A motor skill is a function, which involves the precise movement of muscles with the intent to perform a specific act." (Motor Skills are Essential to Learning educlime.com retrieved Nov. 27, 2013) Motor skills are broken down into two categories, gross and fine motor skills. Any willful movement requires the use of either or both of these motor skills. Just as we don't think about breathing or making sure our heart is beating at the right rhythm, as an adult we don't take active thought in using our motor skills. If we didn't have these motor skills for "precise movement" we would be left defenseless to the surrounding environment. Piaget's first stage in his cognitive theory is Sensorimotor- using senses to understand the world- which is from birth until 2 years old.
Gross motor skills are deliberate actions coordinating larger movement. These skills can start to be seen as early as 0-3 months, displayed through lifting the head while on its belly or kicking legs when laid on the back. Larger gross motor skills include picking up toys, crawling, walking, and going up and down stairs. Developing gross motor skills helps the baby to be able to better protect and provide for herself and prepares her for when she gets older. Babies developing gross motor skills are uncoordinated in their movements and often fall or trip. Through plenty of practice, and all the falls and trips, the babies are slowly learning how to hone in on these larger movements and eventually be able to do them without putting much effort into it.
Fine motor skills are more refined smaller movement, usually done with the hand or fingers. Examples in infancy would be playing with toys, reaching and grabbing, and turning the head toward sounds. Development of fine motor skills are important because they are also related to the development of the mental capacity to do certain tasks. Fine motor skills are what prepare us for a large portion of are interactions in our environment.
These reflexes and motor skills help us fulfill our physiological and safety needs not only during infancy but for the rest of our life. If such skills are not learned that individual will find it hard if not impossible to satisfy these needs later on in life with out the help of others.
REFERENCES
Is it true that babies are born with the ability to swim and naturally know to hold their breath? (1997-2013) Retrieved November 5, 2013 from http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-true-that-babies-are-born-with-the-ability-to-swim-and_10313062.bc
Newborn- Reflexes (2013) Retrieved November 7, 2013 from http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/newborn/behrefx.html
Gross Motor Skill Milestones for Infants. (2013) Retrieved November 10, 2013 from http://www.rchsd.org/programsservices/a-z/p-r/physicaltherapy/developmentalmilestones/C007285
Motor Skills are Essential to Learning (2013) Retrieved November 15, 2013 fromhttp://www.educlime.com/wharemosk.html
Infant Developmental Milestones (2011) Retrieved November 15, 2013 fromhttp://www.kamloopschildrenstherapy.org/fine-motor-skills-infant-milestons
"A motor skill is a function, which involves the precise movement of muscles with the intent to perform a specific act." (Motor Skills are Essential to Learning educlime.com retrieved Nov. 27, 2013) Motor skills are broken down into two categories, gross and fine motor skills. Any willful movement requires the use of either or both of these motor skills. Just as we don't think about breathing or making sure our heart is beating at the right rhythm, as an adult we don't take active thought in using our motor skills. If we didn't have these motor skills for "precise movement" we would be left defenseless to the surrounding environment. Piaget's first stage in his cognitive theory is Sensorimotor- using senses to understand the world- which is from birth until 2 years old.
Gross motor skills are deliberate actions coordinating larger movement. These skills can start to be seen as early as 0-3 months, displayed through lifting the head while on its belly or kicking legs when laid on the back. Larger gross motor skills include picking up toys, crawling, walking, and going up and down stairs. Developing gross motor skills helps the baby to be able to better protect and provide for herself and prepares her for when she gets older. Babies developing gross motor skills are uncoordinated in their movements and often fall or trip. Through plenty of practice, and all the falls and trips, the babies are slowly learning how to hone in on these larger movements and eventually be able to do them without putting much effort into it.
Fine motor skills are more refined smaller movement, usually done with the hand or fingers. Examples in infancy would be playing with toys, reaching and grabbing, and turning the head toward sounds. Development of fine motor skills are important because they are also related to the development of the mental capacity to do certain tasks. Fine motor skills are what prepare us for a large portion of are interactions in our environment.
These reflexes and motor skills help us fulfill our physiological and safety needs not only during infancy but for the rest of our life. If such skills are not learned that individual will find it hard if not impossible to satisfy these needs later on in life with out the help of others.
REFERENCES
Is it true that babies are born with the ability to swim and naturally know to hold their breath? (1997-2013) Retrieved November 5, 2013 from http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-true-that-babies-are-born-with-the-ability-to-swim-and_10313062.bc
Newborn- Reflexes (2013) Retrieved November 7, 2013 from http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/newborn/behrefx.html
Gross Motor Skill Milestones for Infants. (2013) Retrieved November 10, 2013 from http://www.rchsd.org/programsservices/a-z/p-r/physicaltherapy/developmentalmilestones/C007285
Motor Skills are Essential to Learning (2013) Retrieved November 15, 2013 fromhttp://www.educlime.com/wharemosk.html
Infant Developmental Milestones (2011) Retrieved November 15, 2013 fromhttp://www.kamloopschildrenstherapy.org/fine-motor-skills-infant-milestons
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