Page 30 - Advanced Biblical Counseling Student Textbook

standing before walking, to using nouns before adjectives. Severe deprivation or abuse can slow down
development, and positive parental experiences of talking and reading will help sculpt neural
connections. Yet the genetic growth tendencies are inborn. Maturation sets the basic course of
development; experience adjusts it. Examples of this from nature would be your height, weight, hair
color, shape of face, eyes, etc. From nurture would be habits, being secure, skills you learn from
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parents, behaviors you see modeled from those around you.”

Motor Development is physical coordination enabled by the developing brain. As an infant’s muscles
and nervous system mature, more complicated skills emerge. With occasional exceptions, the sequence
of physical (motor) development is universal. Babies roll over before they sit unsupported, and they
usually crawl on all fours before they walk. These behaviors reflect not imitation but a maturing nervous
system; blind children, too, crawl before they walk.

Genes play a major role in motor development. Identical twins typically begin sitting up and walking on
nearly the same day. Maturation – including the rapid development of the cerebellum at the back of the
brain – creates our readiness to learn walking at about age 1. Experience before that time has a limited
effect. Look at the above chart of early childhood development milestones. Every child develops
differently, but this chart is a guide to development.

37 Myers, p. 70, 2009

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