Development of Bimanual Coordination of Early Childhood

双手协调对适应性人体功能很重要；然而，我们对其发展及其与发育障碍的关系的理解是不完整的。该项目将采用一种动态系统方法来检查15至27个月儿童的双语能力，这是一个目标群体，其活动以前在文献中没有得到充分代表。该项目的方法将包括一个纵向研究容易引出有节奏的打击行为，击鼓。个人的发展轨迹将根据发展系统分析的原则和方法绘制。此外，引入听觉模型或人类模型将使研究者能够确定，在该技能发展的不同阶段，减少对儿童的自我调节要求是否会增加双侧节奏行为的稳定性。据推测，这种自我调节要求的减少确实会在行为从一个点转移到另一个点的过渡点上增加击鼓行为的稳定性。运动学分析将允许在个体和总体水平上报告微遗传和个体遗传数据，与动态系统分析方法保持一致。相信这个项目将开创一个富有成效的研究项目，将允许深入检查运动、认知和环境因素，这些因素有助于幼儿的双手能力，并导致潜在的早期诊断和非典型发育条件的干预应用。此外，它还将为少数族裔妇女人数不足的几名学生提供研究培训机会。重要的是要了解儿童在双手技能方面的典型发展途径，特别是在生命的最初几年。这个年龄段的儿童正在经历技能发展的快速增长，幼儿期是进入学校之前诊断发育障碍的关键点。由于双语言能力是人类日常活动中不可或缺的一部分，并且由于研究者已经发现了非典型双语言协调模式与发育障碍之间的联系，因此相信该项目最终可能会为有发育障碍风险的儿童提供有用的非语言早期诊断和干预工具。

Bimanual coordination is important to adaptive human functioning; yet our understanding of its development and relation to developmental disorders is incomplete. This project will adopt a dynamic systems approach to examining bimanual competence in children between the ages of 15 and 27 months, a target group whose activity has previously been under-represented in the literature. The project's methodology will include a longitudinal study of an easily elicited rhythmic percussive behavior, drumming. Individual developmental trajectories will be mapped according to the principles and methods of developmental systems analysis. Additionally, introduction of auditory or human models will allow the investigator to determine whether reducing the self-regulatory requirements placed on the child increases the stability of bilateral rhythmic behavior at different points in the development of this skill. It is hypothesized that such reduction of the self-regulatory requirements will indeed increase stability of the drumming behavior at transitional points at which the behavior shifts from one point to another. Kinematic analysis will allow microgenetic as well as ontogenetic data to be reported at both the individual and aggregate level, in keeping with dynamic systems approaches to analysis. It is believed that this project will inaugurate a productive program of study that will allow in-depth examination of the motoric, cognitive, and contextual factors that contribute to bimanual competence in young children, as well as lead to potential early diagnostic and intervention applications for atypical developmental conditions. Additionally, it will provide research-training opportunities for several students who are under-represented minority women. It is important to understand the developmental pathways typically experienced by children with respect to bimanual skills, particularly during the first years of life. Children in this age range are undergoing rapid growth in skill development, and early childhood represents a critical point for diagnosis of developmental disorders prior to entry into school. Because bimanual competence is so integral to our daily activity as humans, and because investigators have discovered links between atypical bimanual coordination patterns and developmental disorders, it is believed that this project may ultimately lead to useful nonlinguistic early diagnostic and intervention tools for children at risk for developmental disorders.