Environmental Effects on Motor Development: the Case of ‘African Infant Precocity’

Abstract

To clarify the extent and cause of African infants'' precocity in motor development, as reported by Geber and others, 64 babies and their families were intensively studied in a rural Kenyan community. The motor skills of sitting and walking, which the Kenyan babies acquired early (by American standards), were specifically taught by the caretakers and can be practiced in the course of their usual daily routines. They were not advanced in skills which were not taught or practiced. Middle-class urban Kenyan children from the same ethnic background were generally intermediate in both environmental encouragement and rate of advancement. Preliminary results from other groups in Kenya suggested that encouragement of motor development was widespread and that for behaviors which were differentially encouraged among groups, the average age of attainment was predictable from environmental measures.