Motor learning is a relatively permanent change in the ability to perform a skill as a result of continuous practice or experience.
A fundamental movement skill is a developed ability to move the body in coordinated ways to achieve consistent performance at demanding physical tasks, such as found in sports, combat or personal locomotion, especially those unique to humans, such as ice skating, skateboarding, kayaking, or horseback riding.
Some reasons for these impairments could be caused by an injury, illness, stroke, congenital deformities (an abnormal change in the size or shape of a body part at birth),[4] cerebral palsy, and developmental disabilities.
Problems with the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, muscles, or joints can also have an effect on these motor skills, and decrease control over them.
Unless afflicted with a severe disability, children are expected to develop a wide range of basic movement abilities and motor skills around a certain age.
[8] Motor development progresses in seven stages throughout an individual's life: reflexive, rudimentary, fundamental, sports skill, growth and refinement, peak performance, and regression.
In essence, "parents and teachers often encourage girls to engage in [quiet] activities requiring fine motor skills, while they promote boys' participation in dynamic movement actions".
Motor-skill acquisition has long been defined in the scientific community as an energy-intensive form of stimulus-response (S-R) learning that results in robust neuronal modifications.
For instance, if an infant moves his right hand and left leg in just the right way, he can perform a crawling motion, thereby producing the satisfying outcome of increasing his mobility.
[citation needed] During the learning process of a motor skill, feedback is the positive or negative response that tells the learner how well the task was completed.
Augmented feedback decreases the amount of time to master the motor skill and increases the performance level of the prospect.
For instance, women perform better on manual dexterity tasks during times of high estradiol and progesterone levels, as opposed to when these hormones are low such as during menstruation.
[23] An evolutionary perspective is sometimes drawn upon to explain how gender differences in motor skills may have developed, although this approach is controversial.
For instance, it has been suggested that men were the hunters and provided food for the family, while women stayed at home taking care of the children and doing domestic work.
[24] Some theories of human development suggest that men's tasks involved gross motor skill such as chasing after prey, throwing spears and fighting.