Parents are quick to inform friends and relatives as soon as their infant holds her head up, reaches for objects, sits by herself, and walks alone. Parental enthusiasm for these motor accomplishments is not at all misplaced, for they are, indeed, milestones of development. With each additional skill, babies gain control over their bodies and the environment in a new way. Infants who are able to sit alone are granted an entirely different perspective on the world than are those who spend much of their day on their backs or stomachs. Coordinated reaching opens up a whole new avenue for exploration of objects, and when babies can move about, their opportunities for independent exploration and manipulation are multiplied. No longer are they restricted to their immediate locale and to objects that others place before them. As new ways of controlling the environment are achieved, motor development provides the infant with a growing sense of competence and mastery, and it contributes in important ways to the infant’s perceptual and cognitive understanding of the world.
* locale: 현장, 장소