jueves, 28 de noviembre de 2013

1. Psychological development

Development

All human beings, since they are born, are immersed in a process called development. This process leads them to the experience of several qualitative changes, not only physical by psychological too. Development is a key factor when acquiring and fixing new psychological functions as so is the interaction with the different features of the context that surrounds the individual. Every psychological process implies three dimensions together: cognitive, psychomotor and socio-affective.

It is needed to be acknowledged that, as it has been said before, the development of the human being starts at the very first second of his life and ends with the last one.

There are two main types of developmental changes: ontogenetic and microgenetic.
The first are defined as the changes that the subject experiences throughout his life (lifelong changes), while the latter are considered specific and qualitative changes that happen in a specific moment and are different in every subject.

From simple to complex

Every individual has his starting point fixed in what is simple and ends up in more complex forms of what he already was previously. Development is just the bridge that links both poles, providing the human being what is needed to achieve complexity. The final result of this process is an autonomous individual able to self-regulate his emotions and feelings.
The following table defines clearly this concept:




Regarding this table and the previous definition of development as a bridge between two poles (simplicity and complexity), it is important for us, as future teachers, to know in deep the characteristics of each student as so to be aware of the stage that each child goes through in order to provide the proper tools, knowledge and other resources that he needs to progress. These resources offered have to be chosen wisely and be coherent with the development of the individual in order to make this transition easier and fluent.
The relation between Development and Learning
Didactical vs. Deterministic Approaches

There are two main factors that lead to development: endogenous (biological) and exogenous (contextual) factors.
The endogenous factors are those inherent in the human being, the genetic inheritance that the subject receives from his parents once he is conceived. These factors are not variable; they are fixed in the individual and remain without any change.

The exogenous factors are those related with the interaction that the subject establishes with his immediate context. These factors are variable as so the different contexts and interactions possible where the individual can take part on several processes that lead to development.

Different theories and approaches have been raised depending on their focus in the two different types of factors. Those approaches focused on the development determined mainly by endogenous factors are called deterministic approaches. On the other hand, those who define development as a process determined by exogenous factors are called didactical approaches. Next, some examples of these two different approaches will be given:

Deterministic approach:  Psychodynamic theory, Cognitivist theory
Didactical approach: Behaviorism theory, Socio-historic-cultural theory

The following videos define the Cognitivist and Behaviorism theory and their application to education.



Cognitivist Approach



Behaviorism Approach

When defining one’s own perspective in relation to the different theories of development, the first thing that has to be taken into consideration is that not only one type of factors leads to the development of the individual but is the mixture of both endogenous and exogenous factors what does. When a child is born (Palacios, J.; Coll, C.; Marchesi, A., 1990), the first stages of life are clearly determined by the biological factors (canalization), whereas the following stages are defined by the influence of the context where the kid is immersed and its social and cultural features. When working with kids, it will be essential to determine the stage that the student is going through in order to anticipate, detect and define the needs that he may have to face and deal with. 

Contextual perspective
Socio-historic-cultural theory

The contextual perspective is the approach that has its focus on the interaction with the context and its social and cultural features in order to develop the psychological functions. This perspective remarks the influence and role that exogenous factors have on the individual’s development. Some theorists developed their own theory under this point of view such as Vigotsky.

Vigotsky was the proposer of the Socio-historic-cultural theory which estates that the developmental changes the subject experiences are determined by his participation in sociocultural interactivity systems of the community where he is immersed. These changes are mainly produced because by the action of the individual and the final result of this process is the acquisition of symbolic tools specific to the context where he lives. The symbolic tools (Turuk, M. 2008) that Vigotsky raises are all the different resources, whether signs or tools, that are created by humans under specific cultural and historical conditions (meaning by this that are specific to each different context) which carry the main characteristics of the culture. Moreover, these tools are used as aids in solving problems that cannot be solved in their absence.

The acquisition of symbolic tools will lead to the main goals of development: autonomy and self-regulation.

How are symbolic tools acquired?
There are three main factors that determine the acquisition of symbolic tools in the school context:

1. Interaction:  the process of communication, not only with teachers but among peers specially, that takes place in the classroom helps the subject discover new tools (inter-psychological plane) and the latter acquisition and internalization of them (intra-psychological plane).

2. Guidance: the teacher will not interfere in the learning process of the student but it will oversee and give guidance and advice regarding the needs of the student in a determined moment.

3. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): considered the gap between the current development of a subject and the development that is wanted to achieve. The lane towards development is only built by the individual, the different processes of interaction that he carries out with peers and the scaffolds provided by the teacher. The result of going through the Zone of Proximal Development is the achievement of the intra-psychological plane.

To conclude, when thinking about education and   the teachers’ action in the learning process of the   students, it is needed to be highlighted not only the awareness and consciousness of the stage and needs that each individual may have in order to offer the students the proper scaffolds to achieve development but to acknowledge the importance of moving through the inter to the intra-psychological plane, as it will mean that the subject is able to apply what has learnt from his context in different and new situations. Besides guidance, the teacher will have to provide coherent and appropriate situations and environment in order to make possible and easier interaction amongst students. 

Schooling and development hand in hand
Education is one of the key factors regarding the development of the individual at early ages. The different processes and activities that are carried out throughout the schooling aid the student improve his cultural and social skills as so the personal development and the acquisition of positive values and attitudes.
School activities are defined by four main dimensions that are clearly explained in the following conceptual map: 

School activities are different to any other educational activities such as the ones that are carried out in family because, even though they help in the developmental process of the subject, they are neither designed nor planned with and educational purpose.
As it can be seen in the conceptual map, each school activity has a clear objective set and defined for a specific moment in the learning process. All relations among the members of the educational community and the hierarchies established have to be considered when developing the different activities inside the educational institution in order to success in reaching the goals set no matter the situation.
Moreover, the role of the teacher when planning and designing the activities is not only to work for the development of the students and the attention to the different needs they may have but to become changing agents that lead to the reform of the institutions where they work.

Activities related with this topic

REFERENCES

  • Coll , C. , Alvaro, Marchesi, A, Palacios, J. (comp) (1990). Desarrollo psicológico y             educación /, Vol. 1. Alianza, Madrid.
    • Cap. 25. Desarrollo psicológico y procesos educativos. Pp. 367-383.

  • Guadalupe, J. 2008. La teoría de aprendizaje de Vigotsky. Retrieved from:
         http://innovemos.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/la-teoria-del-aprendizaje-de-vygotski/

  • Turuk, M. 2008. ARECLS, 2008, Vol.5, 244-262
    • The relevance and implications of Vigotsky’s Sociocultural theory in the second language classroom.  Retrieved from:

miércoles, 27 de noviembre de 2013

2. Socio-affective development

The socio-affective development of the individual influences in several ambits. Throughout the development, the improvement and acquisition of skills regarding interpersonal relations, emotional regulation, identity construction and critical thinking is achieved. Besides, the discovery and understanding one’s own emotions and the others’ is also a competence that appears and is worked on when the developing of the socio-affective dimension occurs.

Emotions
Our reaction to stimulus


An emotion is a complex state of the organism of an individual that is developed because of the excitation or disturbance produced by a stimulus. The organism of the individual produces an organized answer regarding the stimulus that has caused this emotion. Emotions lead the individual to act regarding the people that surround him and even with himself. Emotions are closely related with the development of the personality.
Regardless the common belief, not all emotions are universal, only basic emotions, such as happiness, fear or sadness, are the ones shared by all human beings. Another characteristic of emotions is that they are neither expressed nor felt voluntarily, they are manifested through impulses that cannot be avoided. The manifestation of these impulses is the behavioral component of emotions which, in other words, means the reaction and actions that the individual carries out when experiencing a determined emotion. Some examples of reactions regarding emotions are the different gestures and facial expressions that the subject reproduces when experiencing them. Both gestures and facial expressions let us guess the emotions that other people is experiencing as it has been proved (Russell, J. 1994) that the representation of basic emotions has common traits amongst human beings.  
Emotions - Feelings - Mood
Are they the same?
Before starting to talk about emotions and their relation with the development of the child and education, it is needed to be done an appreciation, as there are three concepts that are usually considered the same and their difference has to be clarified. These three concepts are emotions, feelings and mood.
As it has been said before, emotions are the reactions of the organism of a subject to a determined stimulus. However, feelings are considered the cognitive component of an emotion or, in other words, the subjective interpretation of an emotion experienced. Mood, instead, is defined as the prolongation of an emotional state or an emotion that lingers in time. Besides, moods can be also the precursors of feelings if they are prevail for long time in the subject.
As it can be seen, those three concepts are closely linked and related but the several differences among them have to be acknowledged by us teachers as, when teaching our students, we will have to be able to distinguish them easily in order to make the students understand them and use the appropriate words when expressing what they experience and feel.
The child’s emotional development and education

In terms of emotional development, the child moves through several stages that are defined regarding the evolution they experience in their emotional comprehension and regulation.  In the following table (Soldevila, A., Filella, G., Ribes, R. i Agulló, M. J. 2007), the emotional development that the child experiences will be explained:


It is needed to highlight that this emotional development grid is not universal as all children are different and neither their rhythm of development nor their characteristics are the same.
Regarding education, the behavioral component of basic emotions can be educated if the subject is capable of identifying them and the physical reactions that the experiencing of this emotion leads to. In this sense, the school works for the development of the emotional self-regulation, meaning by this, the self-control and regulation of the emotions that a determined subject may experience. In order to achieve this objective, the school has to focus not only on the intellectual development of the individual but on the emotional too. The achievement of emotional self-regulation can be reached by working on the enhance of the identification of emotions, the recognition of one’s own emotions and the emotions experienced by other individuals in the context and finally the expression of one’s own emotions.
Self-regulation of emotions is an important issue to lay stress upon in school and further education since the subject will have to deal with situations in his daily life that require the domain of this competence. The more it is worked at early ages, the more the individual will be capable of defending himself in the context where he is immersed.
When teaching emotions to our future students, first of all, we will have to take into consideration the different stages that the child goes through in terms of emotional development. It is also important, as it has been said previously, to take into account the differences among students as, even though they will share common traits in their emotional development, some will arise and will have to be treated properly in order to achieve the best outcomes for everyone.

Calvin and Hobbes, an example of lack of emotional self-regulation.
In the next video, two dynamics regarding the emotional development are displayed. It can be seen that both teachers are not only working on the identification of the emotions by explanations and facial expressions or gestures but in the recognition of emotions in others. It is really interesting to see in situ how kids of 4-5 years old lay aside their egocentric perspective and try to empathize and to stand in someone else’s shoes.


Factors influencing the emotional development

There are several factors that play an important role in the emotional development of the individual. Factors like the attachment bond and the interrelations that a concrete individual may have established with other members of a common context. Depending on these two factors, the emotional development of a subject will be easier to happen or not.

The attachment bond

The attachment bond is considered the connection that the child, when he is born, needs to establish with at least a primary caregiver (person who takes responsibility of a subject which is not able to take care of himself) in order to achieve social and emotional development. The attachment bond (Weiss, R. S. 1991) is characterized by three main features that make it different from any other relational bond: proximity seeking, secure base effect and separation protest.

1. Proximity seeking: Child’s attempt to remain close to his parents. The distance range that the subject considers acceptable varies depending on the situation as, in threatening situations the range will decrease.
2. Secure base effect: While being with the attachment figure, the child’s security will increase.
3. Separation protest: When the threat of being separated of the attachment figure exists, the child will protest in order to return to a safe and secure situation.
There are four main types of attachment bond classified depending on how they influence in the emotional development of the individual. The following grid will explain them in deep and the consequences each type of attachment bond lead the child to: 


By taking a look at the previous grid, it can be concluded that depending on the attachment bond established between the adult and the child, the emotional self-regulation of the latter will vary. It can be clearly seen that the most stable attachment bond is the secure while the others have several lacks that may affect the subject negatively.
When being teachers, it will be very important for us to be able to detect the kind of attachment bond that the different children have established with their families as, therefore, we will be able to know which are their lacks and needs in terms of emotional development. Those with attachment bonds different to the secure one will have to be taught in deep and more helped in order for them to overcome their difficulties and achieve emotional self-regulation. Moreover, as teachers we will also have to design the dynamics and activities
Peers’ interaction and group relation
Another factor influencing the emotional development of the individual is the interaction and the relations he establishes with other members of the same context. Friendship is one type of relation that influences the most in the child’s development.  
Friendship
Friendship is defined as the affective relationship that is established between two or more people. This interpersonal relation creates a solid affective bond that is stronger than the one created by association. This type of social relation is created voluntarily, based on reciprocity and the willingness of joy from the members forming it.
People involved in friendship establishment experience several changes in their individual structure throughout the development of this process (García, F. 2013). First of all, positive emotions and feelings experienced lead to the validation of the self of each of the individuals as so their moral and self-concept development. Besides, the affective bond created among the individuals involved in this process makes them protect each other against risk factors that may affect them.
Friendship also develops a sharing feeling that leads to the development of the detection of needs and emotions that the friend is experiencing and, therefore, the enhancing of empathy and the emotional comprehension of the individuals.
Even though friendship provides lots of positive experiences, benefits and helps the individual develop his own characteristics, the affiliation with people that provide conflicts or poor individual enrichment may sometimes be negative for the people involved in this process.

Friendship does not only influence on the emotional development of the subject involved but it also has a huge impact on the identity construction of the individual as other social interaction processes do.

Identity construction
The construction of the identity of the subject is determined by three main factors: self-esteem, self-concept and group identity.
The self-concept is the cognitive aspect of the self. It is the idea that the individual builds of himself, the image not only physical but psychological of his being. However, self-esteem is the evaluative aspect of the self, the conscious assessment of the concept that the subject has previously established. The group identity is closely related with the social interactions and friendship, which have been explained previously.
The evolution of the self-concept, as all developmental processes, takes place throughout the life of the individual. Starting at early ages (2-6), the individual develops an isolated representation of the self with few coherence and highly changeable. This image built is idealized and more positive than realistic. During the first years of primary schooling (6-8), the image built does not only involve the external characteristics of the subject (physical) but the internal aspects (psychological) too. At this stage, children still compares only with themselves and not with other individuals, so their perception of themselves positive. Finally, at the last years of primary schooling (8-11), friendship plays an important role as group relations start to gain importance. The kids at this stage tend to compare with other members of the group and, while making these comparisons, they realize the differences among individuals.
Self-esteem is formed by three main dimensions: physical (the one related with the physical appearance and skills), social (the one related with the different social interaction processes that the child takes part into) and academic (which is related to the school subjects and the outcomes obtained).
One aspect that is closely related with the self-esteem is the locus of control which is understood as the idea of the control that a subject has over the consequences of the acts carried out by him. There are two types of locus of control, the internal and the external
1. Internal: the responsibility of the consequences relies on oneself (i.e. “I passed the exam”).
2. External: the responsibility of the consequences relies on external causes (i.e. “The teacher gave me a bad grade”).
We develop and construct our own locus of control depending on the situations and interactions with parents or from others, it is not genetically determined.
Regulating the locus of control between the two, internal and external poles, is important regarding the self-esteem as it can affect negatively on it. For instance, if a student with high internal locus of control prepares a lot for an exam and fails it, he may think that he is not capable of obtaining good outcomes even though he studies a lot. This attitude can lead to the decrease of the self-esteem of the individual as the self-assessment he carries out will provide negative information.

Gender influence in identity construction

Most of the traits that define the identity of an individual are mainly determined by their genetic inheritance. Although the common conception that people has regarding the identity construction is that socialization plays the main role in this process, the construction that society has built for both genders is way less than the role of genetics (Tellegen, A. 1988).
It is important to acknowledge that the condition of being born man or woman does not determine the identity traits as we are not born knowing the existent differences among genders or the role we will play throughout our life. It is socialization and the later awareness of social constructions of genders what define this acquired part of our identity. In the same way stereotypes, which determine the main traits that are expected for each of the genders and even the social position of girls and boys, are other agent that influence the identity construction of the individual. Besides, stereotypes do not only influence on the individual’s building of identity but they promote the appearance and maintenance of inequalities and prejudices regarding this topic which lead to misleading beliefs, negative attitudes and behaviors.

In the following video about Disney’s films can be clearly seen how stereotypes are reproduced and transmitted to children without they noticing it.




When working with kids, it will be essential for us to try to foster the positive identity construction for each of our students by balancing all different factors that play a role in this process. We will have to act regarding all needs of students and help them in their path towards the development. Besides, we will have to work taking into account the importance that gender has in this process and trying to avoid popular stereotypes or negative beliefs in our lessons and classes for every children to create his/her own idea and without prejudices.

Activities related with this topic:


REFERENCES

  • Soldevila, A., Filella, G., Ribes, R. i Agulló, M. J. (2007). Una propuesta de contenidos para desarrollar la conciencia y la regulación emocional en la Educación Primaria. Cultura y Educación, 19 (1), 47-59
  • Russell, J. 1994. Psychological Bulletin 1994, Vol. 115, No. 1, 102-141
    • Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of the Cross-Cultural Studies. Retrieved from: 
http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/is_there_universal_recognition_of_emotion_from_facial_expressions-_a_review_of_the_cross-cultural_studies.pdf

  • Weiss, R. S. 1991. Attachment across the life cycle.
    • Chapter 4: The attachment bond in childhood and adulthood.  Retrieved from:

  • García, F. 2013. El aprendizaje de la amistad en la Educación Primaria. Retrieved from:  


  • Judge, T. A. and Bono, J. E. 2001. Journal of Applied Psychology 2001, Vol. 86, No. 1, 80-92
    • Relationship of Core Self-Evaluations Traits—Self-Esteem, Generalized Self-Efficacy, Locus of Control, and Emotional Stability—With Job Satisfaction and Job Performance. Retrieved from:


  • Tellegen, A. 1988. Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Retrieved from:
http://www.rc.usf.edu/~jdorio/Personality/Personality%20Similarity%20in%20Twins%20Reared%20Apart%20and%20Together.pdf

martes, 26 de noviembre de 2013

3. Psychomotor development

Psychomotor development

This third post of the blog will be mainly focused on the psychomotor development of the individual as so as the different processes that the subject goes through and acquires during it. It has to be considered that the psychomotor dimension entails the capability of the individual of expressing oneself with efficiency in the context where he/she is immersed thanks to the interrelation among the cognitive functions, the emotions and the physical movement.
A learning task is considered within the psychomotor dimension if it requires motor control and coordinating muscular movements. Although the movement and its control is essential in this type of tasks, the senses play an important role when carrying out this processes as they are the ones that allow the individual to perceive external stimulus coming from the environment where he/she is found and then act according the information received.

Which developmental line follows?


The psychomotor development follows two main rules that determine the use and control of the body parts of the individual (Ardanaz, 2009; Jiménez, 2006). These two rules are called Cefalocaudal and Proximodistal laws.
The first one states that the first part that the individual is able to control is the head. The development leads the subject to the control of the movement of lower parts such as the neck, the chest, the hips, the legs, the feet and finally the toes.
The latter raises that the nearest parts to the body axis are the first ones to be controlled. Thus, the shoulder would be the first part to acquire control and arms, wrists hands and fingers are the following.

The following video exemplifies both Cefalocaudal and Proximodistal laws by showing some images of kids that are in this developmental stage.


Once these two laws have been clearly defined and understood, it may be regarded that a child will first acquire control of the upper limbs and then, gain control of the lower ones. Therefore, this fact may explain why kids at early ages are able to grab things with the hands with more movement definition than carried-out tasks in which the lower limbs are involved. Tamara Ardanaz in her article La Psicomotricidad en Educación Infantil explains in detail the steps that the child goes through regarding these two laws since his/her birth until the subject reaches the age of five. For instance, at the 6-8 months of the child’s life, the author argues that the child is able to stay sit without help (in this case, the movement control of the torso is also developed) and acquires prehension and object manipulation ability but he still crawls in order to move around.

This assumption is essential to consider when working and living together with kids as from its understanding, we will be aware of the child’s normal course of psychomotor development and besides, we will be also able to establish and adapt our expectations to it. The awareness of this fact is not only important for us as teachers or monitors, also parents should be conscious of both laws and their process in order to choose, reflect and decide which actions they may carry out and which ones will be useful and helpful for the child’s better development.

Referring to my previous experiences related with this issue, I have to say that two years ago I had the privilege of working as a psychomotor activities monitor for children from three to five years old. It really amazes me how, for carrying out his job, I did not receive any instruction or guide to follow in order to develop proper sessions for the kids’ best psychomotor development. This field is often misrelated with having fun and playing games, but it should go further than this and entail more involvement for those in charge to manage this kind of activities and also those enterprises that offer this services. Now that I have been able to go in deep in this issue and discover such aspects of the psychomotor development, I have to admit that even though I tried my best while carrying out my job, now I feel more confident in my experience and knowledge regarding this topic and I think I would be able to perform my job better than I did previously. Even though I tried my best when thinking and developing the sessions and seeking for the ones for the kids’ enjoyment and proper development, now I would change several activities or sessions that I thought they were appropriate in order to improve my previous performance.

Acquisition of psychomotor skills

Once the developmental line of the psychomotor dimension has been defined, the acquisition of psychomotor skills should be stated, as it is another essential factor to be aware of when working with kids. As it has been mentioned in previous posts regarding the psychological and the emotional development, the psychomotor development is a continuous process that starts with the birth of the individual and does not have a defined ending. There are several stages that all human beings go through depending on his/her maturity, but it is the context where each of them is immersed what establishes the differences and gaps among individuals (do not forget about people with disabilities and difficulties in their learning process which will also have delays in this issue if they are compared to people who does not have them). Therefore, it could be stated that those contexts with more variety of stimulus and possibilities to experiment with one’s own body will be the ones in which children will be able to develop psychomotor skills faster.


Knowing that the variety of stimulus, objects and experiences enhances the acquisition of psychomotor skills in children, teachers in schools in charge of this kind of activities should try to come up with sessions that should help every child acquire abilities related with this topic and improve the activities designed by providing appropriate resources full of meaning and information that can be used by children for them to develop these skills faster and efficiently.

The picture accompanying the text contains most of the elements that a person has in mind when speaking about psychomotor development. The main reason why most of the material that appears in the picture comes to our mind when thinking about a psychomotor session or classroom, is due to the need of providing a huge variety of stimulus for kids to learn and acquire psychomotor abilities. Such objects offer the students different and diverse opportunities to learn which, in other words, means that having such assortment of objects allows the teacher to cover all the needs that a child may have when developing his/her psychomotor skills. By assuming that kids carry out their psychomotor development through the interaction with the elements and objects of the context, it could be concluded that there are similarities among the psychomotor and cognitive development as, regarding the latter Piaget stated that children also acquire knowledge by interacting with the existent elements of the environment where they are placed. This issue will be explained more in detail in following posts.

But regardless the different stimulus that a context may provide to the children which are immersed in, there are existent differences among these kids that can be clearly seen when working with them daily. The main reason why this happens may be found in ontogenetic aspects as, in this case, the variety in the genetic pool of each of the individuals coexisting in the same context is what will determine the differences in their own psychomotor development. Therefore, the teacher’s acknowledgement and realization of the individual characteristics of each subject is a key factor that will determine the children’s proper development. If the teacher is able to identify the needs and demands of every child, he/she will be successful when teaching these kids to control their own body, movement and corporal activity and, besides, to interact with efficiency within their social context. Nevertheless, it is needed to highlight the need of working transversally and exploring all different possibilities regarding one activity since the variety and amount of capacities and dimensions developed in one single activity will determine its usefulness and the possible enrichment that may suppose to the student.

Searching on the internet for information related with psychomotor sessions for kids of primary education, I ended up finding a video that really caught my attention. In the following video can be seen a group of elder people being instructed in psychomotor development. I found this issue of interest as, when we think about psychomotor development, we usually forget about the elders that are seeing their abilities and skills reduced as time passes. This kind of exercises are focused on the maintenance of abilities such as equilibrium, lateral dominance or muscle tone, but it is also aimed to palliate possible diseases related with bone loss or lack of muscle tone (Psicomotricidad y ejericicio físico para mayores). Moreover, these sessions can also be seen as a meeting in which these people does not only work on their physical maintenance but also have the opportunity to create relationships and establish communication with people and thus, foster their emotional dimension too. It is important to consider that through the attendance to this kind of sessions, where not only exercises but games are implemented, elders will also be working on some cognitive aspects such as the memory and attention. For people with neurodegenerative disorders (Valencia, 2008), this set of activities will be of use in order to maintain their physical abilities and also those related with the cognitive dimension previously mentioned. 

Taller psicomotriu - Acompanyament a la gent gran: 

Analyzing a drawing of an eleven-year-old child

Children start drawing at early ages, as it is a method that they use in order to communicate with other people near them. Through drawings, the subject is able to express his feelings and perception of the reality that surrounds him and, while attempting to reproduce the elements and features of the context that he wants to express to others, cognitive skills such as attention, perception or memory are also being developed.

Moreover, drawing does not only entail the expression of the child but also involves the emotional dimension, as the subject tries to be valued thanks to their artistic production. The emotions and feelings of adults related to the drawing of a child will influence in his self-esteem as he/she will be able to perceive if s/he is understood and accepted in a group of people. Thus, when observing and analyzing drawings made by kids, it is important to acknowledge that there are no mistakes or errors in their production but what the drawing is trying to reflect is the reality and emotions that the subject is experiencing in a determined moment.

In order to address this issue, I will analyze a drawing of an eleven-year-old child that was asked to draw “his house” with no more premises given; he was free to draw whatever he wanted but respecting the topic raised. Through this analysis, we will be able to determine in which stage related to the childhood drawing he could be classified in. Below these lines, a grid with all stages regarding the childhood drawings development is displayed in order for everybody to try to guess which is the most appropriate stage for Èric’s drawing and its features.


In the drawing we can observe how Èric has drawn the inside of his house. The corridor is the main element of the picture, which gives profundity to the image and, around it other elements of the house are drawn. Other elements that can be seen are the door of his room (which has his name written in it), the entrance of the kitchen and even both microwave and the fridge appear within the room (placed at the left side of the drawing). Finally, at the end of the corridor can be seen a door that leads to another room (living room) where a cage for budgies has also been drawn.

By only analyzing the different elements of the picture, it can be easily determined that what Èric has drawn is a faithful reproduction of the reality that he perceived in the moment he was drawing. It is a realistic picture that contains all the details that define that place of his house.
Thus, regarding his interpretation of reality, it could be concluded that while he was drawing, he carried out an objective analysis of the elements that surround him in order to reproduce in detail and give the receptors a clear idea of what he believed that his home was.

Through taking a look at the picture, we can clearly see that Èric is not only drawing on one plane, but he is also considering the proportion and volume of the elements he wants to draw, being able to play with the perspective and profundity and finally obtaining a sensation of a three-dimensional picture.

Finally, the drawing Èric has done has no color because he preferred to leave it in black and white, as he thought it would look nicer than if he colored it. Through this statement, we are able to appreciate that even though he wanted to give the drawing an objective look, he also considered his own preferences while its development. Therefore, even though the drawing could be seen as an absolute realistic representation of his environment, by choosing not to color it he is also expressing his own point of view and way of interpreting reality. It is also important to consider that by drawing a determined place of the house and not the whole building, he is also giving a personal vision of what he considers his home which, in this case, is the inside of the house what he really feels like home.

With all evidences gathered related to this drawing, we could consider it within the realist stage as he is able to carry out some of the features related with this stage such as the realization and reproduction of proportion, volume and perspective. Nevertheless, there are some aspects that could be included in the communicative stage, such as the aim of analyzing the environment objectively but also offering some elements that represent his vision of reality.

Other aspects to take into account regarding the graphic gesture development that could be also analyzed in Èric’s drawing could be the maturation of the hand muscles or his psychological development. It is obvious that Èric has both muscles of the hand developed as he is able to carry out all movements that are related to drawing (flexion – extension / abduction – adduction / rotatory movements). In terms of psychological development, Èric has acquired the fine motor skills needed to draw as so the cognitive development in terms of symbolization (he has written his name on the door of his room with clear calligraphy). Finally, in terms of the socio-affective development, he may be not showing specific emotions (or I am not able to perceive them), but as it has been said before, he is offering to the receptors of this drawing his own vision of home.

Regarding this topic, we can conclude that drawing is a method that children have in order to represent the reality they are living and defining the characteristics of such by meanings of observation. Through the drawing, the child is able to express a determined message or emotions that he wants to transmit to others for him to be understood. When being teachers, we should take into account the importance of each drawing and its elements since, by analyzing them, we will be able to know them more in deep and be aware of the characteristics or needs of each of them. We should foster the development of the drawing skills and, therefore, children will have the opportunity to represent what they are thinking in a different way than speaking.

Why do we need a well-defined body scheme?

The body scheme is the mental image that the individual has of his own body, it is the idea that he has about the different parts and segments that form it and also the different movements he can carry out with them. This mental representation (Pérez, 2005) also allows the subject to determine his own body’s position whether it is in a repose state or in movement. In addition, Le Boulch states that the body scheme does not only allow the subject to create an idea of his own body but also is determined by its relation with the space and objects that surround him. The creation of this image is a progressive experience that the individual builds up since his birth and finds its end at the age of 11-12 and its determined by neurological maturation processes. There are three main types of body image depending on the different approaches to this issue:

Perceptual image: the representation of the body that the individual has in terms of size, shape and weight.
Cognitive image: it regards the set of beliefs and thoughts that the individual has about his body.
Emotional image: this image entails the level of satisfaction that the individual has according to his figure, features and the set of experiences that the body provides the individual. This image is the most subjective of the three since it implies the self-judgment of one’s own characteristics.

The body scheme is a key factor in the development of a child as the body is the first thing that he is able to discover. Before knowing the context where he is immersed or the features of the environment around him, he is able to get to know his own characteristics. The body and the actions that the child is able to carry out are the link with the context and other people that can be found there. The image of the body or body scheme may be of use for the individual as a self-regulative system that helps him to have control of his own body and its relation with the space and time. It is needed to highlight the importance of the creation of a proper body scheme in order to have the most objective perception of our possibilities and capabilities to identify which tasks we will be able to carry out autonomously and which will require of some help or guidance to reach success.

The self-regulation function of the body scheme entails the control of three main aspects: the body consciousness and regulation; the time representation; and the spatiotemporal structuring. First of all, the body consciousness and regulation allows the individual to perceive his own body and, therefore he is able to control several psychomotor features that develop at school age such as equilibrium, lateral dominance and independence among corporal segments (which is considered to be the control of a unique part of the body and independent to others). Such aspect of the body scheme helps us to define the actions we want to carry out in our context depending to our possibilities, being able to know what we are capable of and what will be more difficult for us to do. Another aspect that the consciousness of our body allows us to regulate is the control of the physiological impulses such as going to the toilet. This aspect is a key factor to work with kids the soonest, since it means for them an important move towards autonomy. Closely related with the previous issue, time representation allows the individual to have a control and awareness not only of the time (by using different tools to measure it) but also of the time that the individual requires to carry out an specific task or the biological time which entails the sequencing of physiological needs such as eating, sleeping or going to the toilet. The addition of the latter aspect and the consciousness of space help the individual when determining his position in a determined place and moment, being able to orienteer himself by perceiving stimulus coming from the environment.

As it can be clearly seen, all these aspects related with the development of the proper body scheme help the individual in his attempt to become more autonomous and less dependent to others. Knowing this, when being teachers we should enhance the proper construction of the body scheme since students at primary school ages have not developed completely the image of their own body yet. Students should be provided of activities and experiences which promote this kind of learning for them to be able to get to know their body and discover what they are capable to do. Activities within this category could be to ask students to stay in equilibrium in a determined position (thus, proprioception will be developed) or do concrete movements with determined parts of the body (so they are able to realize which movements can be done with each of the articulations). When I was studying the CFGS of Sport and Physical activities, I worked in deep the scheme of the body, its different planes and the movements of the articulations. Even though I had my body scheme already formed, I found very useful this information as it help me understand why each segment of the body does a determined movement (depending on the shape of the articulation and the distal parts of the bones which are connected, a determined segment will be able to do a kind of movement or more than one). The following image shows the different planes of the body scheme. In each of them, determined movements can be done:

Coronal plane: abduction (moving away from the body) / adduction (towards the body)
Sagittal plane: flexion (vertical movements aimed at the head) / extension (movements on the opposite direction of the head.
Transverse plane: pronation (internal rotation) / supination (external rotation)

Even though this information may not seem of use for students as they are complex concepts to understand, teachers should adapt it for them to be aware of the prefixed possibilities that their body provides them. This information may also help to prevent lesions as, if students are aware of the movements they can do, they will understand how a lesion regarding this issue can be created and then avoid it.

It is also important to consider that the construction of the body scheme can be influenced by several factors such as social interrelations with others or a lack of objectivity towards the own body. The negative influence of these aspects may lead to lacks in the construction of the body scheme and, therefore, have difficulties when identifying one’s own characteristics or even have a low-self-esteem. For this reason, teachers should be aware of such factors in order to foster the positive and avoid the negative and thus, help each student achieve the construction of a well-defined body scheme. 

REFERENCES

Ardanaz, T. (2009). La psicomotricidad en educación infantil. Innovación y experiencias educativas, (16). Retrieved from:

Jiménez, J. (2006). La psicomotricidad de tu hijo/a: cómo desarrollarla y mejorarla. Cáceres: La Tierra hoy. Retrieved from:

Ministerio de sanidad y política social. Psicomotricidad y ejercicio físico para mayores. Retrieved from: http://web.usal.es/~amapola/docs/i.pdf

Valencia, C., López-Alzate, E., Tirado, V., Zea-Herrera, M. D., Lopera, F., Rupprecht, R. and Oswald, W. D. (2008). Efectos cognitivos de un entrenamiento combinado de memoria y psicomotricidad en adultos mayores. Revista de neurología, 46(8), 465-471. Retrieved from:

Pérez, A. J. (2005). Esquema corporal y lateralidad. Retrieved from: