Typical and Atypical Motor Development

Sugden and Wade, leading authors in this area, comprehensively cover motor development and motor impairment, drawing on sources in medicine and health-related studies, motor learning and developmental psychology. A theme that runs through the book is that movement outcomes are a complex transaction of child resources, the context in which movement takes place, and the manner in which tasks are presented. The core themes of the book involve descriptions of motor development from conception through to emerging adulthood, explanations of motor development from differing theoretical, empirical, and experiential perspectives, and descriptions and explanations of atypical motor development when the resources of the child are limited in some way.

Readership: Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, paediatricians, teachers (physical education, early childhood development, elementary education), educational psychologists, kinesiology and sports scientists.

David Sugden has an academic background in developmental psychology, special education and physical education, his PhD is from the University of California at Los Angeles. He has taught in primary, secondary and special schools as well as lecturing at college and university level in the UK and the USA. His specialist research interests include motor development, motor impairment, motor learning, and children with developmental disorders. His work centres on the characteristics of typically developing children and those with various forms of impairment. He is co-author of the most widely used assessment instrument for motor difficulties, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children. He is currently Professor of Special Needs in Education, University of Leeds, UK. 

Michael Wade has published extensively in two areas of motor skill development across the lifespan: one with emphasis on individuals with motor difficulties and the other being the effects of ageing on motor skill performance. Dr Wade holds Fellow status in the American Academy of Kinesiology and the American Academy of Mental Retardation and is a Past President of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. He teaches and researches in the areas of motor development, ageing, developmental disabilities, human factors, and the foundational aspects of the field of kinesiology. He is currently Professor of Kinesiology and Professor, Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Minnesota, USA.