Conception of the development of the motor organization in child with reference to cerebral palsy and its therapy

It is often put forwards that the motor behaviour may be explained on the basis of motor patterns defined with reference to metric space. Merton, who interpretes the gamma loop as a length servo-mechanism, gives a neurophysiological basis to the above conception. The critical study of Merton's theory, our personal work and the analysis of the motor development of the infant lead us to disagree this view. The notion of pattern seems worthkeeping, but provided that the organization is described in terms of regulation of movements and not in terms of position, or length of muscle. A metric spatial reference is not always present. When it is needed, it is not included in the postural regulation. In other words, this reference is not obtained by a postural servo-mechanism. It is obtained first by trial and error in relation to external object and this is so in the young child. It is much later that an evaluation of distance is integrated into action, deriving from a conceptual acquisition of it by the child. The obvious progression of motor behaviour from birth poses the question of respective roles of maturation and learning. A review of very recent works lead us to think that maturation is not a sufficient explanation. Being by the fact, lead to emphasize learning, it becomes evident to us that application of the psychological conceptions of J. Piaget gives the best explanation of the facts. The above analysis in normal child are applied to cerebral palsied child, giving explanations of problems and offering better guides for therapy.