Adolph And Robinson's Argumentative Analysis

1. Adolph and Robinson argue that there are not universal stages of walking because every infant is different. The authors assert that development is a nonlinear process that can occur with a variety of precursors, with some precursors occurring simultaneously. They make a great point by stating that the stages are simply precursors, not prerequisites. A precursor is an event that may or may not precede walking, whereas a prerequisite would be a required action that is necessary for learning to walk. Adolph and Robinson further expand this argument by describing the emergence of walking as a series of continuous events compared to discrete events that follow an order. Continuous and concurrent events support the idea of variability among infants, while discrete events support the idea of specified and required “stages.” In a broader sense, walking is an important component of development. …show more content…
In everyday life there is unpredictability. An infant may go from crawling to walking and skip cruising. It is typical for infants to experience the “stages” out of order or skip certain “stages” altogether. Similarly, environmental factors, historical changes, and cultural preferences may affect an infant’s process of learning to walk. Adolph and Robinson give several examples in support of their argument. For example, in a sample of infants in Jamaica, 29 percent of the infants skipped crawling and just learned to walk, while the remaining infants learned to crawl and walk concurrently. In a similar study with British infants, 17 percent skipped crawling altogether, while 7 percent began to walk. Then in an eighteenth century descriptive text, it was reported that 40 percent of American infants skipped crawling. These examples portray how variable the process of walking