The Classification of Motor Skills

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• Chapter 1
• The Classification of Motor Skills
• Concept Motor skills can be classified into
  general categories

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The Study of Motor Skills Motor Learning,
Control, and Development

• Motor skills require body, head, and/or limb
  movement to achieve its goal
• Motor learning involves the study of
• Acquisition of new skills
• Performance enhancement of well-learned skills
• Reacquisition of skills following injury,
  disease, etc.

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The study of motor skills(cont.)

• Motor control involves the study of
• How the neuromuscular system functions to enable
  coordinated movement
• While learning a new skill
• While performing a well-learned skill
• Motor development involves the study of
• Human development from infancy to old age
• Issues related to either motor learning or motor
  control

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University of Delaware Motor-Control Research
Christopher Knight
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Development of upper limb proprioceptiveaccuracy
in children and adolescentsDaniel J. Goble a,
Colleen A. Lewis a,b,Edward A. Hurvitz b, Susan
H. Brown
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Terms Related to Motor Skills Skills, Actions,
and Movement

• Skills - Tasks or activities that have specific
  goals to achieve (action goals)
• Motor skills vs. cognitive skills
• Actions Term often used as synonymous with
  the term motor skills
• Movements Behavioral characteristics of a
  specific limb or a combination of limbs

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One-DimensionClassification Systems

• Categorize skills according to one common
  characteristic
• Divided into two categories, each representing
  extreme ends of a continuum

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One-DimensionClassification Systems, contd

• Three motor skill classifications that use
  one-dimension approaches see Figure 1.2
• Size of primary musculature required
• Specificity of where actions begin or end
• Stability of the environment context

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Size of PrimaryMusculature Required

• The benefit of a continuum approach to skill
  classification
• Some motor skills involve both types to achieve
  the action goal and would be located between the
  two points

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2. Specificity of Where Actions Begin or End

• Two main categories
• Discrete motor skills - specified beginning and
  end points, usually require a simple movement
• e.g. flipping a light switch
• Continuous motor skills - arbitrary beginning and
  end points usually involve repetitive movements
• e.g. steering a car
• Combination category Serial motor skills
• Involve a continuous series of discrete skills
• e.g. shifting gears in a stick shift automobile

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3. Stability of the Environmental Context

• Two main concepts
• Closed motor skills involve a stationary
  supporting surface, object, and/or other people
  performer determines when to begin the action
• e.g. picking up a cup while seated at a table
• Open motor skill involve supporting surface,
  object, and/or other people in motion
  environment features determines when to begin the
  action
• e.g. catching a thrown ball

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A Two-Dimension Classification System

• Gentiles Taxonomy of Motor Skills
• (Table 1.1)
• Taxonomy - A classification system
  organized according to relationships among the
  component characteristics of what is being
  classified

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Gentiles Two-Dimensions Taxonomy, contd

• Two-dimensions of the taxonomy
• Environmental context
• Function of the action
• 1. Environmental context
• Two characteristics
• Regulatory conditions
• Characteristics of environment that control the
  movement characteristics of an action
• Intertrial variability
• Whether the regulatory conditions are the same or
  different from one performance attempt to another

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Gentiles Two-Dimensions Taxonomy, contd

• Function of the action
• Two characteristics
• Body orientation
• Does the skill require the person to move from
  one location to another or to stay in the same
  location
• body stability, - maintain same location
• body transport change location (actively or
  passively)
• Object manipulation

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Summary of the 2 Dimensions

• 4 characteristics can describe any motor skill
• 2 Environmental context characteristics
• 1. Are the regulatory conditions stationary or
  in motion?
•   2. Do the regulatory conditions change from
  trial to trial?
• 2 Action function characteristics
• 1. Does the action goal require maintaining the
  body in the same location or transporting the
  body from one place to another?
•   2. Is an object manipulated?

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The 16 Skill Categories

• The interaction of the four environmental context
  characteristics and the four action function
  characteristics creates 16 skill categories
• Table 1.1 shows Gentiles original presentation
  of the taxonomy along with two examples of skill
  in each category

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Characteristics of Gentiles Taxonomy

• Each category puts different demands on the
  performer
• Skill complexity basis for taxonomy organization
• From simplest 1A diagonally to most complex
  4D
• Complexity increases when a motor skill involves
  one or more of the following
• Open environment
• Trial-to-trial variability
• Object to manipulate
• Body transport

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Practical Uses of Gentiles Taxonomy

• Guide for evaluating motor performance
  capabilities, limitations, and deficiencies
• Systematic basis for selecting progressions of
  functionally appropriate activities to
• increase performance capabilities
• overcome performance deficiencies
• Chart persons progress developing a profile of
  competencies