Psychomotricity defines a broad area of interplay between body, mind and spirit. If even one area is disturbed, behavioral deficits as well as movement and perception deficits can occur with varying intensities and effects.
What is psychomotor therapy?
Psychomotricity defines a broad field of the interaction of body, mind and spirit. Psychomotricity is a branch of psychology. It has not been clearly defined until today. It deals with voluntary and purposeful movements. The linking of movement with perception and the cognitive processes, the so-called cognition, is in focus. The terms sensorimotor and motor skills are difficult to distinguish, since they are more concerned with elementary movement performance. The motor skills, also called motor skills, are more related to the complex movement patterns. In pedagogy and special education, psychomotricity also refers to motor exercise and treatment procedures. Since the mid-1970s, psychomotricity has developed into an active field of research with ties to European and non-European universities as kinesiology or movement science. The fields of study psychology and physiology are complemented by biology, neurology, robotics, physics and sports science. Theoretical or metatheoretical developments as well as better possibilities for registration and analysis of movements play a supporting role in the study period. In other words, it can be said that psychomotricity deals with human movement. In the foreground are the conscious processes, the expressive processes as well as the processes of the will. This includes, for example, emotionality and concentration but also the highly individual personality structure. Ernst Kiphard is considered to be the forefather of psychosomatics with his sports program for children who are aggressive and have behavioral problems. His sport offer related positively to the emotional child development.
Function and task
In psychomotricity, different functional principles apply with regard to movement control. Thus, psychomotor studies rest on two pillars. On the one hand, the basic performances in everyday life such as grasping, reaching, standing, writing and speaking as well as locomotion are addressed. On the other hand, the general principles of function are to be included. It is always necessary to adapt one’s own movements to the environment. For example, touching a thing at a certain place. For this, first a spatial coordinate, related to the target position, is required. Then certain joint positions have to be adopted, which cannot be done without combined muscle forces and certain muscle innervations. Thus, motor transformation involves muscle innervation, muscle forces, and fingertip joint position. Thus, movement control cannot be limited to single limbs. For example, when the arm is lifted, the body’s center of gravity is shifted. This results in activity in the leg muscles in order to continue to maintain balance. When walking, there is an interdependence between the simultaneous movements of different limbs that must be coordinated. The development of impaired movements is attributed to an interplay of psychological experience but also the development of perceptions and motor skills. A summary takes place under the technical terms Motopädie, Mototherapie as well as Motopädagogik in addition, movement therapy and/or movement pedagogy. In principle, psychomotricity always describes personality development from a holistic point of view. Psyche and physique are therefore always connected and movement processes are based on self-awareness. Therefore, the posture of a person always says something about his mental state. At the same time, movements not only have an effect on one’s own motor skills, but also on the perception of one’s own abilities. Particularly pronounced and interconnected are rational and emotional as well as mental processes in children. This makes it clear why emotions are also expressed through movements or through movement sequences. Therapeutically, movement games are therefore used to facilitate contact with children. Movement is therefore ideally suited to first build up and then consolidate movement competencies.The unity of motor and mental processes describes the term “psychomotor” in the result. Gaining importance in modern medicine is the term “psychomotor”, which describes the promotion of development with the help of movement.
Diseases and ailments
There may be motor abnormalities associated with behavioral deficits in childhood. According to Kiphard, these are based on “minimal cerebral dysfunction.” It comes to deficits in the movement and/or perception and in the further course to hyperactivity, a motor restlessness in addition, to concentration disturbances or an inhibited behavior. According to Kiphard, motor activity can stabilize and harmonize the child’s or adolescent’s personality. The trampoline, for example, is very suitable for training coordination and movement. Physical, mental and or psychological handicaps can be treated positively with the elements of psychomotricity. This applies to impairments in the areas of cognition and communication as well as to the areas of emotion, motor skills and sensory perception. Already early childhood development can be disturbed, for example, in the areas of cognition, language development, but also emotionality and the formative fundamental structures for later social behavior. In detail, it can be a disturbed self- and body experience through insufficient possibilities of physical expression and insufficient ability for the perception and implementation of sensory experiences. The unwillingness or inability to recognize rules also belongs to this area. Enuresis (bedwetting after the end of the 4th year of life) can also be due to a disturbed psychomotor function. In the primary form, the child has never been dry; in the secondary form, bladder control has later ceased. In addition to the psychomotor disturbances already mentioned, growth retardation in terms of length and weight gain may also occur in some cases. Depressive behavior patterns are also not uncommon.
