Ability to differentiate

Under kinesthetic Ability to differentiate the technical jargon understands the ability of humans to judge a motion sequence with regard to its quality and to dose accordingly.

This ability enables people to carry out their movements economically, safely and precisely (differentiated) and to adapt them to the situation at hand.

The goal is a high quality movement performance, which turns out to be more and more finely coordinated with increasing quality improvement and thus enables an appropriate dose of force and target adjustment.

What is the ability to differentiate?

Able to differentiate means that a person is able to control motor skills situationally on the basis of a constant exchange of information about the current movement position.

A person's ability to differentiate is based on kinesthetic information, which controls the unconscious but orderly sense of movement of the person by means of the responsible brain area. The word kinesthetic goes back to the ancient Greek terms kineō (move) and aisthēsis (experience, perception).

A well-developed coordination ability is a decisive prerequisite for balance and rhythm ability, which checks the incoming sensory information in a differentiated manner for important things, forwards this information to the responsible brain area and, after implementation, adjusts the movement sequences accordingly.

Humans are able to control motor skills situationally on the basis of a constant exchange of information about the current movement position. Examples of this ability to differentiate are various movements such as catching a ball, clapping, dancing or juggling with objects.

Function & task

The ability to differentiate is one of the most important coordinative skills. It only works in a balanced interaction with the ability to orientate, react, rhythmic, balance, adapt and connect.

Humans orient themselves to spatial conditions and changes and are able to adapt adequately to this situation. The kinesthetic exchange of information that takes place with the responsible brain area enables him to react accordingly to this incoming sensory information and to implement it in a motorized manner.

In addition, he has the ability to adapt his movements to this changed, given rhythm, to keep his body and his movements in balance and to fine-tune them with each other.

At the end of this process, his ability to connect allows him to synchronize all his movements or partial movements in a spatially and temporally coordinated manner in order to achieve the desired target movement in the best possible way.

The possibility of differentiation plays a major role within these sensory abilities, as it is particularly indispensable in the area of ​​the increased performance level. In order to coordinate a movement sequence in a differentiated manner, extensive recording of information and its processing is essential beforehand.

The cerebellum with its kinaesthetic analyzer plays a crucial role here, because it differentiates between information absorption and information processing. An example from the field of sports: In order for the tennis player to be able to hit the small tennis ball, which is moving towards him at around 180 km / h over the tennis field, in the middle, he must guide his racket optimally to the approaching tennis ball.

To achieve this goal, the position of the club head in relation to the ball is crucial. The tennis player has to use his strength dosed on the basis of his kinesthetic differentiation skills, which with this movement becomes one of the most important coordinative skills.

There is a constant exchange of information about the current situation, the posture correction and other subsequent movements. The more regularly these motor processes are trained, the closer the interconnection of the neurons involved in this movement process takes place in a finely tuned coordination of several centers of the cerebrum and cerebellum.

Illnesses & ailments

The optical, the phonematic and the melodic differentiation skills are further sensory perceptions without which we would not be able to cope in everyday life.

Optical sensory perception is an indispensable prerequisite for learning to read and write. We usually learn these skills in school. The children are dependent on a high level of precision of optical perception. At the beginning of the learning phase, the child concentrates on the technical and formal side of the learning process, as their ability is not yet so routinely developed that this process runs automatically without much effort.

The automatic and exact perception of optical modalities of the characters is a prerequisite for securing the reading and writing process as a unit of motor skills and understanding (processing of information in the brain).

Phonematic differentiation enables people to hear phonetic sounds within a word in order to understand the spoken word. The kinesthetic ability to differentiate is responsible for reading and articulation and controls correct pronunciation. The melodic ability to differentiate enables people to use melodic diction to evaluate sentences and words differently.

If the various differentiation skills are malformed or insufficiently developed, the affected people show corresponding signs, for example a disturbed movement sequence, lack of fine motor skills, a reading, writing or arithmetic weakness as well as deficits in pronunciation.

These missing or insufficiently trained skills can lead to deep-rooted and long-lasting behavior patterns in all areas of personal and social life in the affected people. For example, people with reading and writing difficulties often suffer from insecurity and inferiority complexes because they are not able to perform as well as their fellow human beings.

If the fine motor skills are insufficiently developed, this deficit can cause complaints in our everyday life, as we have to carry out movements throughout the day, regardless of whether it is sporting performance, typing on the computer, shopping or other everyday activities.

The behavioral patterns of the persons concerned can deviate more or less clearly from the cultural, societal and accepted guidelines. These deviations manifest themselves in various areas such as cognitive perception, impulse control and affectivity.

The resulting behavior patterns can be inappropriate, inflexible and inexpedient. The people concerned feel a personal level of suffering and an adverse influence from their environment.

A lack of the ability to differentiate has far-reaching effects on people's entire lives and affects their feelings, thoughts, perception, reactions to the environment and relationships with other people.