Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2026
Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
Published on: February 8, 2019
Bimanual strategies for object retrieval in infants and young children
Deirdre Birtles1, Shirley Anker, Janette Atkinson
1Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, UK.
Insights
Infants develop goal-directed bimanual coordination by 18 months, but sequential, not synchronized, hand use persists. Adult-like bimanual coordination and hand preference patterns emerge by age 6 years.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Neuroscience
- Motor control
Background:
- Bimanual coordination is crucial for complex motor skills.
- Understanding the developmental trajectory of bimanual coordination is essential for identifying developmental milestones.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in goal-directed bimanual coordination.
- To identify the developmental timeline for achieving adult-like bimanual hand use and coordination patterns.
Main Methods:
- An object retrieval task involving opening a box and retrieving an item was administered.
- Participants included typically developing infants (9-29 months), children (4-6 years), and adults.
- Temporal and hand preference analyses were conducted on bimanual actions.
Main Results:
- Majority of infants (18+ months) showed differentiated hand use, but performed actions sequentially, unlike adult synchronization.
- Hand preference patterns differed, with younger children favoring the right hand for lid lifting, contrasting with adult patterns.
- Adult-like bimanual coordination and hand preference were not observed before 6 years of age.
Conclusions:
- Bimanual coordination begins developing in infancy but requires significant maturation for adult-like performance.
- Maturation of brain networks, including interhemispheric transfer via the corpus callosum, is critical for automatizing bimanual actions.
- The findings provide insights into the developmental progression of complex motor skills and neural maturation.
Abstract:
Age differences in goal-directed bimanual coordination were studied in typically developing infants aged 9-29 months, compared to a group of children aged 4-6 years and a group of adults, using an object retrieval task. This task required one hand to open and hold the lid of a transparent box, while the second hand retrieved a small toy from inside the box. Well-coordinated retrieval strategies with differentiated use of the two hands were not established in the majority of infants until 18 months of age. Temporal analysis of the hand actions revealed that, unlike adults who perform the task with close synchronization of the hands at the start, the infants performed the task sequentially and did not activate the second hand until the first hand had started to lift the lid. The children's hand preferences for the two-hand actions also contrasted with those of adults. In children aged 27-29 months and 4-6 years, there was a preference for using the right-hand to lift the lid while in right-handed adults, the reverse pattern was observed. The results suggest that although bimanual coordination starts to develop in the second year of life, the adult pattern of performance on this task is not observed before 6 years of age. It is likely that further maturation of the brain networks involved in bimanual coordination, and in particular functional interhemispheric transfer via the corpus callosum, is required before automatization of bimanual hand actions is achieved.
