In this tutorial you have the opportunity to observe Will using vision, upper limb (swiping) and manual actions to interact with, explore and learn about the environment.
At 9 weeks Will's hand actions are starting to reflect typical visual and manual behaviors expected at 2 months:
► Will has learned to stabilize the head in the midline and maintain a steady trunk when moving the limbs.
► Spontaneous individual finger movements are becoming more common. The hands are less fisted than before.
► Reach-to-grasp is becoming more direct and the hand is starting to open and align to the object.
► Will uses his hands to explore his body, clothing and surfaces and objects encountered by his hands. Increasingly contact is made with the palmar aspect of the hand and fingers, and contact leads to exploratory finger movements.
The impact of context on visual and manual behavior
There are three video clips of Will interacting with objects in the environment: each clip provides a different context as regards support surface, posture, and position and features of the toys. These differences strongly influences the behaviors that Will employs in his visual and manual exploration.
Will looking at and reaching for suspended toys
In this first video you see Will in supine visually exploring the three toys that are suspended above his chest. When one hand makes contact with a toy, Will turns to look at it.
Later in the video I move the one toy so that it is easier to reach, and this stimulates several reaches where his hand makes contact with the toy.
Towards the end of the clip Will's visual attention gets captured by the purple toy with long legs - he has difficulty disengaging and starts to get upset.
Will in bouncy chair - manual exploration and reaching
This next video shows Will sitting in soft bouncy seat. His posture provides an opportunity for him to manually explore his body, clothing and the surrounding surfaces.
A set of plastic links are suspended within easy reach and he spends a long time reaching towards to links and inspecting them with his fingers.
You will notice that he mainly reaches for the links with his left hand. This is due to the angle of his trunk in the seat which makes it less easy to lift his right arm, and provides a good example of the how the context (in this case the shape and pliability of the seat) influences function.
Will in bouncy chair: talking to a flower
In this clip you see Will having a conversation with a flower. This is a favorite toy of mine and has engaged many an infant in prolonged smiling and cooing. On this occasion he does not reach towards and finger the petals of the flower.
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Infant hand function 0-6 months
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Development of head control: newborn to 20 weeks