Cover -- Oxford Textbook of Children's Sport and Exercise Medicine -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Editors and Contributors -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Exercise science -- 1. Growth and maturation -- Introduction -- Prenatal to postnatal growth -- The curve of growth -- Types of growth data -- Growth in stature -- Patterns of growth -- Growth in body composition -- Development of shape -- Adolescence and puberty -- Regulation of growth and maturation -- Biological maturity -- Skeletal age -- Secondary sex characteristics -- Menarcheal status -- Somatic age

Age at peak height velocity -- Conclusions -- Summary -- References -- 2. Development of motor control -- Introduction -- Theories of development -- Perception and action -- Reflexes -- Spontaneous movements -- Development of fundamental movement skills -- Postural development -- Development of locomotion from crawling to running -- Reaching, grasping, throwing, and catching -- Conclusions -- Summary -- References -- 3. Developmental biodynamics: the development of coordination -- Introduction -- Motor development -- Degrees of freedom -- Kinematics of coordination -- Kinetics of coordination

Modelling -- Free body diagram -- Components of net joint moment -- Motor modules and central pattern generators -- Dynamical systems approach to motor development -- Self-​organisation and constraints -- Coordinative structures, control parameters, and order parameters -- Patterns, attractors, and stability -- Cyclicity in biological systems -- Force-​driven harmonic oscillators -- Self-​optimisation of coordinative structures -- Energy sources -- A dynamical systems perspective of walking in children with cerebral palsy -- Conclusions -- Summary -- References

4. Development of muscle strength -- Introduction -- Defining muscle strength -- Definitions of force and torque -- Assessment of muscle strength -- Determining strength in paediatric populations -- Development of muscle strength -- Age-​ and sex-​associated changes in force/​torque -- Determinants of strength development -- Stature, mass, and strength development -- Maturation and hormonal influences on strength development -- Fat-​free mass and strength development -- Muscle cross-​sectional area and strength development -- Biomechanical factors and strength development

Muscle strength and tendon/​limb stiffness -- Torque/​force kinetics -- Neuromuscular function -- Methodological issues of measuring neuromuscular function in children -- Neuromuscular feedforward and feedback mechanisms in children -- Conclusions -- Summary -- References -- 5. Molecular exercise physiology -- Introduction -- Development of biological sex and of key exercise organs -- The development of muscle: myogenesis -- The development of tendons: tenogenesis -- The formation of bone: chondrogenesis and osteogenesis -- Mechanical signals and cell differentiation