Motor imagery and simulation of action in children

This paper presents a review of motor imagery research in children. After a presentation of the main experimental paradigms used to study motor imagery ability, we expose a set of results concerning the emergence and the development of motor imagery in children that clearly reveals that this capacity would appear around 5-7 years and then would continue to develop until adolescence. Moreover, it suggests that motor imagery would rely on children capacity to use internal model of movement to control their overt and covert actions. This last suggestion is sustained by the various data obtained in children presenting motor disorders due to brain injury, cerebral palsy and motor coordination disorders.