The intervention in Psychomotricity: what does it consist of?

Psychomotricity is the discipline that studies the relationship between the psyche and motor skills of the human being.

Born throughout the 20th century by the hand of authors such as the neurologist Ernest Dupré or the psychologist Henry Wallon, Let's see what this area of ​​study really consists of and how the interventions are specified in the population childish. Likewise, we will review other concepts related to Psychomotricity, such as the foundations of motor development and the definition of what is known as “body schema”.

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Basic principles of Psychomotor skills

The discipline of Psychomotricity is based on some theoretical premises on how to understand the different types of development in the human being. As to the perspective of psychological development, it is assumed that the subject is in continuous interaction with the environment in which he unfolds; From the point of view of motor development, it is affirmed that there is a relationship between the motor and psychological functions (cognitive, emotional, social) of each person; on the part of sensory development, it is understood that there is a link between the senses and the integral maturation of the individual.

Another of the fundamental theoretical principles is based on recognizing that the correct construction of the body scheme favors the development of psycho-cognitive abilities. In addition, it is taken for granted that the body is the key aspect of contact with external reality, which is produced thanks to the movement of the one.

On the other hand, motor skills are assumed to be an inseparable element with respect to the behavior of a same individual, which interacts with the environment enabling the development of capacities complex. Finally, a last fundamental idea would grant a decisive role for language in the process of psychic development of each subject.

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Determining factors in motor development

Motor development consists of a continuous process that begins already from the embryonic phase and that does not stop until the individual reaches maturity, adopting very different rhythms depending on each subject although following the same sequence in all the stages that make up. One of the first samples to take place in it refers to the expression of innate reflexes that gradually disappear to later transform into voluntary and controlled movements of a different nature.

This is possible after the myelination process is carried out and is completed and this is established in the layers of the cerebral cortex (which regulate such voluntary actions), so that each time the movement is refined and perfected in all its coordinated aspects.

Among the factors that determine motor development, three types can be differentiated: prenatal, perinatal and postnatal. Among the former, aspects such as maternal characteristics and habits (age, diet, presence of diseases, hereditary peculiarities, etc.) that can negatively affect the fetus during gestation. At the time of delivery, complications can occur during extraction, which can lead to episodes of anoxia or brain injury (perinatal factors).

As for postnatal factors, they are multiple, although it mainly addresses: the level of physical and neurological maturation, the nature of the stimulation and experiences to which he is subjected, the type of diet, the environment, the types of care and hygiene, the existence of affective behaviors by significant figures, etc. As mentioned above, physical development is very closely related to psychological development, emotional, behavioral and social, with which, the result obtained from the combination of all of them will be decisive for the child.

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What is meant by a body scheme?

The concept of body scheme is defined as the knowledge that an individual possesses about their own body, which includes a full awareness of him, whether he is at rest or in movement, about the relationship they maintain among themselves the set of elements that compose it and the link of all this to the space or context that surrounds it (physical and Social). In this way, both emotional self-perception (state of mind or own attitudes) and hetero-perception that others hold towards a subject are also relevant aspects in the configuration of the scheme bodily.

As equivalent expressions or alternative ways of naming the body scheme there are also binomials such as Body Image, Body Awareness, Postural Scheme, Self Image or Self Image Bodily. Various authors such as Wallon, Le Boülch, Acaen and Ajuriaguerra or Frostig have made their contributions own to define the concept of body schema, although all unanimously converge on the idea from the bi-directional subject-environment influence (physical and social) and consciousness of the individual of his own body.

One of the most relevant proposals is the one made by Bryan J. Cratty, whose classification of the determining components of the body scheme is novel and interesting as it affects the influence of cognitive aspects in its configuration. Thus, for Cratty, the components of the Body Scheme would:

• Knowledge and recognition of the Body Planes.
• Knowledge and recognition of the Parts of the Body.
• Knowledge and recognition of Body Movements.
• Knowledge and recognition of Laterality.
• Knowledge and recognition of Directional Movements.

Integrating learning

Regarding the development of the body scheme, it is assumed that it is as the child incorporates the set of learning that will allow him greater competence cognitive-affective-social of himself and the environment when the formation of this body image of himself differentiated from that of others and of the context that surrounds. For this reason it is said that in the first years of life it is when individual personality is structured and that from this point on it becomes possible to become aware of the self in space and time with respect to everything that is alien to it.

More specifically, the evolution of the formation of the body scheme begins in the first months of life at the level of reflex reactions, which are transformed in other types of more elaborate movements as the baby, in the second year of life, explores and gets to know the environment. This is facilitated by its growing capacity for autonomous movement.

From the age of three and until the end of childhood, changes occur at the cognitive level so that the child it is replacing the subjectivity of the understanding of the external world by a more analytical-rational capacity elaborate. Finally, at approximately 12 years of age, the establishment and awareness of the body scheme is completed.

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Psychomotor skills in the Early Childhood Education stage

In the most recent decades, the Spanish educational system has been incorporating as relevant some content from disciplines that traditionally they had gone unnoticed (or simply had not been investigated on them yet), as is the case of the Psychomotor skills.

Even so, there is still a long way to go to achieve that this interest is given universally in all current spheres and society. This is due to the historically established idea that the only learning that is relevant to teach are the instrumental or productive, ignoring that these are often influenced by other more expressive.

Thus, the deficit in areas such as perceptual, cognitive, emotional organization, etc., which allow a psychological balance and an adequate capacity to adapt to the changing environment, can lead to a result of school failure if it is not corrected in time. In the specific case of Psychomotor skills, there are investigations that relate the existence of manifest learning difficulties such as the dyslexia, dysgraphia, expressive language disorders or arithmetic calculation that are derived from problems in the sensory integration or deficits in the visual or auditory (and bodily, indirect) perceptual organization of the individual.

More globally, the conformation of personality and intelligence They also start from an adequate structuring of the "I" differentiated from the "outside world", which requires a correct assimilation of contents related to psychomotor skills that make it possible. This is also comparable to the achievement of a satisfactory psychophysiological development, since the coordination and Successful execution of the physical movements of an individual is one of the purposes that are worked on in Psychomotricity.

The importance of global development in children

For all of the above, and by way of summary, it could be said that the need to teach Psychomotor content in the early childhood education stage lies in the facilitation in the scope of a comprehensive and integral development of the child (physical -motor coordination-, affective, social, intellectual), in the establishment of one's own identity, in the promotion of self-awareness of oneself, in favoring the acquisition of school learning and the achievement of satisfactory social relationships (increased competition linguistics), in the acquisition of sufficient competence of autonomy, self-efficacy, self-concept, etc., and in the development of affective and emotional

Bibliographic references:

• Lázaro, A. (2010). New experiences in psychomotor education (2nd Edition Revised and expanded). Ed. Miras: Zaragoza.

• Llorca Llinares, M. (2002). An educational proposal through the body and movement. Ed Aljibe: Malaga.