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Athletic Infants: Children who were able to stand and walk unaided at the earliest ages were more athletic as adolescents than children who had been slower to reach those 'motor milestones,' according to a study of 9,000 people born in Finland in 1966 that appeared in PLoS ONE. The most physically precocious infants -- those who stood and walked unaided between about ages six months and eight months -- as 14-year-olds scored one-third of a grade higher in physical education, attended more sports sessions per week and played more types of sports than peers who hadn't stood or walked unaided until six months later. The associations between early motor skills and higher sports participation later in life could reflect genetic differences, as well as the influence of early biological factors, such as diet, the researchers said.
Caveat:The study relied on parental reporting to determine when the infants reached these motor milestones. If enough parents deliberately or unintentionally avoided reporting delayed development, the findings could be skewed, the researchers said. 2010-02-25
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