The development of catching skills in young infants: Analysis of gaze and arm movements

The objective of this project is to investigate the development of catching skills in infants and young children. Skills such as reaching for and grasping an object form an essential part of daily living. The ability to reach for and grasp objects can be seen in early infancy; even at around 3-5 months of age infants are able to control their arm movements in order to reach for and grasp objects. The success and refinement of these catching skills is a process that continues to develop throughout childhoo d. In the present project the development of catching skills in young infants will be addressed by analysing the gaze (eye movements) and arm movements of infants as they reach for and intercept moving objects. Using this approach, the project aims to i dentify the visual information that infants use to coordinate their catching actions. The advantage of recording both the eye and arm movements, and integrating the two sets of data, is that it will be possible to determine the visual information infants can detect and the way in which they use this to initiate and control catching actions. This is a novel approach in the field, largely due to the complexities of collecting and integrating the eye movement and arm trajectory data, particularly in infant p opulations. It is anticipated that a greater understanding of the processes underlying the perceptual-motor development of catching skills may enable us to help children and adults with movement problems such as cerebral palsy, developmental coordination disorder, stroke and Parkinson's disease.