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:

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