The effect of social and physical factors in the home environment on motor development of children

Abstract

The home environment in which children live is an important factor in the general development. Motor development is also stimulated by the home environment. Since young children spend the majority of their time at home, this place is crucial for motor development. In the early motor development of children is a fixed order of mastering specific motor skills, also known as developmental motor milestones. This research focuses on the milestones ‘Standing’ and ‘Walking’. The environment of children can be divided into different aspects, including social and physical aspects. The effect of the physical and social aspects on the motor development of children is examined. Gross motor toys and living space are components of the physical environment. In a lot of families children come in contact with toys at a young age. Therefore toys are very important to develop the young child. In this study a moderation effect of living space is measured. Living space is surely needed to play with gross motor toys. Research shows that motor development is also influenced by social environment. However there is no consensus in the literature so this present study is designed to investigate this disagreement. The social environment is examined by the amount of siblings at home. Beside the home environment a lot of children spend time at daycare. A moderation effect is also measured of daycare on the effect of motor development. The results show there is no effect of toys and siblings on the age of achieving motor milestones. There appear to be no moderation effects. Follow-up studies are necessary further to clarify to what extent the factors ‘presence of siblings’ and the ‘availability of toys'’ predict the age on which the motor milestones are reached.