Pediatric Exercise Science, 1990, 2, 281 -282

Understanding Motor Development: Infants, Children, Adolescents (2nd edition)

By David L. Gallahue. Published 1989 by Benchmark Press, 701 Congressional Blvd., Camel, IN 46032. (563 pp., $31.95)

Reviewed by Jane E. Clark, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland

Understanding Motor Development: Infants, Children, Adolescents is a substan- tially revised edition of David Gallahue's 1982 motor development textbook. The 2nd edition has a new organization and several new chapters. It comprises five major sections. The first section, entitled Background, includes chapters describing an overview and theoretical model of motor development, models of human development, and factors influencing motor development. Sections 2, 3, and 4 chronologically depict motor development in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. The infancy section includes chapters on prenatal factors affecting development, prenatal and infant growth, reflexes and rhythmical stereotypies, rudimentary movement abilities, and infant perception. The childhood section begins with a chapter on childhood growth and development and is followed by chapters describ- ing the fundamental movement abilities, physical abilities, and perceptual-motor abilities of childhood. A final chapter in this section describes the development of self-concept in childhood and its relationship to motor performance. The adoles- cence section includes many of the same topics found in the previous sections. There is a chapter on growth and puberty, a chapter on specialized movement abilities, and one on the physical abilities of adolescents. This section ends with a chapter on adolescent socialization. The final section of the book is devoted to "programming." It is in this section that Gallahue attempts to extend what is known about motor development to the practice of teaching movement skills to young children and adolescents. Chapters in this section include one on children's play, toys, and play spaces and another on the education of young children. A third chapter describes a curricular model for developmental physical education, and the final chapter examines the developmental assessment of motor behavior.

Each chapter begins with student competencies (many taken from the NCATE guidelines and standards on undergraduate motor development) and ends with a summary, chapter concepts, terms to remember, and suggested critical readings. These features will be much appreciated by instructors and undergraduate students of motor development. The chapters also include numerous figures and tables that for the most part augment the text, although several long listings present detailed information that is never fully explained to the reader. For example,

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sma!AaH yoog - 282

Pediatric Exercise Science, 1990, 2, 283-286

Children in Sport (3rd edition)

Frank Smoll, Richard Magill, and Michael Ash, Editors. Published 1988 by Hu- man Kinetics, Box 5076, Champaign, IL 61825-5076. (348 pp., $25)

Reviewed by Lee Vander Velden, Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland

The revised and updated 3rd edition of Children in Sport might be described as all one needs to know about youth sports. Twenty-two chapters are organized into six general areas: The historical perspective and current status of youth sports, readiness for participation, anatomical and physiological concerns, psychological issues, social processes, and future directions. Fourteen holdover chapters from the 2nd edition have been revised to join eight new chapters: the status of youth sports in the United States (#2) and Canada (#3), gender and youth sports (#4), psychological issues in children's age readiness for competitive activities (#7), overuse injuries among participants (#lo), a call for more~noncompetitive games (#12), a motivational model for joining and leaving youth sport programs (#13), and a look at the future directions of youth sport research (#21).

In the opening (holdover) article, Jack Berryman points out that youth sports programs have been located outside the school system since the 1930s when educators decided that organized sports were not beneficial for all children. They had decided that youth sports were designed for elite performers only and that intramural programs wodd help all students. ~usiness and community leaders responded by organizing sport programs for youth; the involvement of parents as coaches and administrators became common in the 1950s and 60s. Ironically, most schools do not have intramural programs today, and Donald Bailey and Alan Martin (chapter 9) call for spending more time on programs for all children rather than on programs for elite performers @. 112). Have we come full circle? The next two chapters, borrowed from Sport for Children and Youth (1989, document the extent of youth sport involvement in the United States (Rainer Martens) and Canada (Terry Valeriote and Lori Hansen). The final chapter in the historical perspective and current status section deals with gender and sport (Mary Duquin). At best thought provoking, it is not clear whether the focus is on girls in youth sport, women in sport, or the nature of sport in general.

The next section on readiness for participation contains articles by Vern Seefeldt (readiness for motor skills), Dick Magill (critical periods), and Michael Passer (psychological readiness). While generally describing the conditions neces- sary for a youngster to learn a motor skill, readiness may be best summarized by Seefeldt's citation of Bruner's m e Process of Education, 1965) position: "We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively &some intellec-

284 - Book Reviews

tually honest form to any child at any state of development" (p. 46). Seefeldt later concludes, "we do not yet have suficient evidence to suggest when the intro- duction to specific skills should occur; nor do we know which antecedent conditions are essential or helpful in moving the child into a position of readiness for specific skills" @. 49). Such findings seem to contradict the discussion on critical periods in the subsequent chapter. Though conceptually meaningful, critical periods remind me of cognitive dissonance: if no learning occurs (adaptive behavior emitted), the time was not right (no dissonance was present). Thus, while not rejecting the concept of critical periods, it seems more important for the teacher/coach/parent to determine when the time is ripe for learning. It may be that Bruner is correct, that the key is to present skills in ways the child can grasp them. In his discussion of psychological readiness, Passer outlines the development of social comparison motives for youth sport participation and describes the process that leads to an understanding of the competition situation, including the young athlete's ability to comprehend what the coach says. Passer also seems to support Bruner's position when he concludes, "There is simply no magic age beyond which participation in youth sport can be delayed so as to guarantee that such (negative) outcomes will not occur" @. 72).

Robert Malina's chapter on the growth and maturation of children and their involvement in sport was especially informative for me as a social scientist reviewer. Concluding that, generally, early maturing boys and later maturing girls have the most success in sport, he reminds us that no one has been able to untangle the effects of conditioning and training from those changes caused by normal growth and development. In their papLon physiological considerations, Donald Bailey and Alan Martin reaffirm the mystery of maturation versus training effects and challenge the belief that an early start is necessary to become a champion, pointing out that while children are resilient and adaptable, they are not miniature adults. In the final paper in this section, Bill Kozer and Russell Lord describe overuse injuries as a growing problem but provide no data to show that the incidence of youth sport injuries has increased.

Psychological issues comprise the largest section-seven chapters-a reflec- tion of the special interests in youth sports thus far. In the first paper, Tara Scanlan points out the superiority of Martens' model of social evaluation and the competi- tive process over the reward model approach. She cautions us about making too much from a single incident, given that children engage in many competitive situa- tions during their youth, and advises that "competition cannot be isolated from the child's larger social context" @. 145). Next, Terry Orlick and Anne Pitman- Davidson champion cooperation over competition, but most of the discussion pertains to preschool children. Although consistent with most chapters in its conceptual approach, I found the material unrelated to the other parts of the book. Dan Gould and Linda Petlichkoff describe a motivational model to emlain involve- ment in youth sports and then attempt to explain withdrawal frok sport using the same model. They believe the model can be used to determine whether with- drawal from sport is part of the trial-and-error process we all go through in our search for something we can do well or whether it is prompted by the sport program's failure to meet the needs of the person.

In the next chapter on the cognitive aspects of sport performance, Jerry

Book Reviews - 285

when did helshe know it? Such information is critical to understanding the long- term permanent changes in performance. Knowledge development seems to be similar to the readiness and critical period concepts discussed earlier. Although the concepts are interesting and essential to learning and/or performance, they are limited because teachers, coaches, and/or parents still have to determine a child's physical and mental readiness to learn the skill. No one seems to know how to do that. Passer, in the second of his two papers, focuses on competitive stress in youth sports, a discussion that highlights a dilemma facing many sport scientists: while acknowledging that competitive stress in youth sport is over- emphasized (Martens; Seefeldt; Gould), he concludes that even if a small percent- age of youth participants suffer from competitive stress, it is a major problem: "stress in youth sport is an issue that cannot be emphasized enough' ' (p. 22 1).

Pointing out that the research and practical interest in competitive stress follows from the popular belief that youth sport is highly stressful, Frank Smoll and Ronald Smith discuss the theory and application of stress reduction techniques. Although they seem to vacillate as to whether sport is a positive or negative stress experience, Smoll and Smith provide suggestions for reducing stress. They point out that fun and stress are inversely related but that both are independent from winning and losing (p. 237). The final chapter in the psychological issues section, Children's Sport and the Development of Social Behaviors, can be summarized with the adage, "do good things, do not do bad things." It lacked any theoretical basis for the development of proper social behaviors.

The three chapters in the social processes section share the same theme, that involvement in sport must be learned. Barry McPherson and Barbara Brown discuss the social structure of organized youth sport programs, identify some functions and dysfunctions of being involved, and suggest some changes in the policies, rules, and structure of such programs. They conclude that despite the popular belief that withdrawal from youth sport is a negative, it is a natural occur- rence for young people who are trying out various roles and activities. In short, youth sport involvement is part of the search to find something one likes to do andlor can do well. John Lewko and Susan Greendorfer's review of the family's role in the socialization process reveals the lack of research on young children and a greater role for peers in the three stages of participation: becorn&involved, being involved, and becoming uninvolved (withdrawal). In the final paper, Michael Smith makes the case that violent behavior in sport is a learned phenomenon.

Seefeldt and Gould each wrote a final chavter. Gould concentrated on research, recommending that sport scientists ask more practical questions, use a variety of methodologies, and get out of the laboratory and into the real world to study kids in sport. I agree! For example, one question that has never been addressed concerns the effect that the emphasis on organized sport has on spon- taneous play. The impression often given is that it is an eitherlor situation-either Little League baseball or baseball on the playground, but not both. Yet no one knows for sure. My guess is that it may vary by sport. For Seefeldt, the future of youth sport depends on the attitudes of adult leaders such as educators and administrators in higher education, directors of local recreation programs, managers of single-sport agencies, and public school personnel. He based his conclusion on the change in attitudes of physicians and educators who previously

286 - Book Reviews

criticized organized youth sports but who are now on record as favoring athletic competition for children.

Several years ago I used Children in Spon (1st edition) as the textbobk for a special undergraduate course on youth sports, and I would make the same deci- sion today about the 3rd edition. Children in Sport is an excellent source from which to organize a course on youth sports and was especially helpful for me in filling knowledge gaps in physiology, psychology, and motor development. Like any anthology, each article stands alone, yet the common focus and the practice of some authors to refer to other chapters in the book help to make it a whole rather than a collection of parts. Although I "talked back" a bit while describing the content, my overall assessment is positive. I have all three editions!

Jerusalem Symposium on Sports Injuries

The 7th International Jerusalem Symposium on Sports Injuries will be held January 14-15, 1991, at the Mitzpeh Rachel Hotel in Jerusalem, Israel. For more information please contact Dr. Gideon Mann, M.D., Chairman, Organizing Committee, Unit of Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Hadassah University Hospital, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel, 91240.