Motor Skills: Learned Behaviour or Genetic Predisposition

Our genetic predisposition is highly overrated!

It is more learned behavior than genetic predisposition

How many times have you heard something along the lines of: “I am not very good at soccer, my dad wasn’t very good either, I guess I have bad soccer genes.”There is no such thing as bad soccer genes, nor are there bad swimming genes.

There are various early childhood education articles about the impact our genetic predisposition has on results achieved. The conclusion varies to some degree as the topic is extremely complex; there is however an underlying trend:

Our genetic predisposition is highly overrated!
We do have a genetic predisposition to behave a certain way: physical, emotional, psychological.

As an example, African Americans tend to be born with more fast-twitching muscles fibres than white people, which tends to make them superior sprinters. How many times have we seen
African Americans win all the 100 meter races in athletics?
More often than not.

There are no doubt some limits on what we are capable of- It can be strength, endurance, emotions, race, mental strength, prone to injuries, height and many more. But what I’d like you to be aware of in this early childhood education articles is that genetics are only an initial guide; there is soo much underestimated potential for various outcomes, both in positive and negative ways.

Genes only give us a starting point of possibilities.
The brain and motor skills change depending on the kind of experiences young children have.
The first behavioral interactions both physical or psychological, starts a path young children will move along. All the interactions thereafter will be affected by the first interactions.

Andre Agassi's Example

Isak (1 year old, not walking yet but balancing on a ball in playpen)

Apparently the father of former world number 1 Tennis Player Andre Agassi attached a tennis ball on a string to the front of Andre’s stroller, dangling back and forth. It’s no wonder that Agassi became one of the best players at reading his opponents shots very early on; he learned it from a very young age and that is following a tennis ball dangling back and forth that was attached to his stroller.






The early experiences your young child goes through is of tremendous importance
Each new skill or pattern is built upon a simpler one; the sooner and the more patterns your child learns, the better. Todays children will go through a never seen variety of experiences
in their young lives as before. Some spend the majority of their time in front of playstations
and TV cartoons, others are highly active including getting involved in various afterschool programs. That’s why we see such a large difference in today’s children’s development over time; which can
go either ways, good or bad. In many early childhood education articles.

The genetic factor of a child’s development is highly overrated
Give your child as many positive experiences with lots of variety early on and you will be surprised how much they will improve, no matter what their genetic predisposition is.

When reading early childhood education articles, remember there are no overnight successes. Overnight success tends to be honing a skill for 10 years prior to being successful, often daily.

A success would be to learn as many positive behaviors as early as possible to build upon, no matter which area of your child’s life.

Source: http://gamesforkidsunder5.net/blog-gamesforkidsunder5/item/566-earlychildhoodeducationarticles.html