A person’s movement is influenced by different mental processes such as concentration or emotionality. This causal interaction is called psychomotor activity.
What is psychomotor therapy?
The term “psychomotor” encompasses the unity of motor and mental processes, and the term “psychomotorics” describes the promotion of development with the help of movement, which is becoming increasingly widespread today. There are various schools of psychomotricity that emphasize the interplay of psychological experience and the development of perception and motor skills. The individual schools represent different assumptions as to how impaired movement can develop. These concepts pursue different emphases and are also summarized under the terms mototherapy, motopedics, motopedagogy, movement therapy or movement pedagogy. The basic assumption of psychomotricity is that the development of the personality is always to be understood holistically. This means that physical and psychological areas are interconnected and movement experiences must always be understood as self-experiences. For example, a person’s posture always says something about his or her mental state. This also applies to children: movements not only have an influence on their motor skills, but also affect their perception of their own abilities. Especially in children, rational, emotional and mental processes are very strongly interconnected. Thus, emotions are also expressed through movement, which makes movement games, for example, much easier to contact with children. The term “psychomotor” therefore encompasses the unity of motor and mental processes, and the term “psychomotorics” describes the promotion of development with the help of movement, which is becoming increasingly widespread today. Ernst Kiphard is considered to be the forefather of psychomotricity, whose sports programs for aggressive children and children with behavioral problems had a positive effect on their emotional development. According to Kiphard, motor abnormalities in children suffering from behavioral problems are due to minimal cerebral dysfunction. This results in deficits in the area of movement or perception and, subsequently, hyperactivity, motor restlessness, concentration disorders or inhibited behavior. However, according to Kiphard, it is possible to stabilize and harmonize the personality of children and adolescents through motor activity. For example, Kiphard used the trampoline to train coordination and movement.
Function, effect and goals
However, Kiphard’s concept was considered too deficit-oriented and eventually evolved, bringing the child’s point of view to the forefront. New approaches emerged, such as the child-centered approach according to Meinhart Volkamer or Renate Zimmer. This approach is similar to Virginia Axline’s play therapy and is intended to provide children with a social experience as well as a space for movement, so that they learn to express and overcome their problems through movement. The movement experiences are only slightly controlled and aim to strengthen the children’s self-concept. The competency-based approach holds that children who suffer from movement disorders also develop psychological problems to compensate for the lack in movement behavior. For example, the competence-oriented approach understands aggressiveness as an expression of a problem in the motor area. In this context, psychomotricity can help to subsequently build up movement competencies. Jürgen Seewald, on the other hand, is a representative of the understanding approach to psychomotricity. He developed so-called relationship or body themes of the children, with the help of which the cause of the problems can be recognized. In a psychomotor setting, these difficulties can then be subsequently processed and overcome. Marion Esser represents an approach that is depth-psychologically oriented. For her, movement is also inner movement, with Gestalt psychology, developmental psychology and psychoanalysis as theoretical foundations. Systemic psychomotricity understands psychomotor development as an adaptation to the respective social environment. Accordingly, interpersonal relationships must also be examined and treated in children who suffer from motoric abnormalities.The different approaches of psychomotricity are mainly used in child or adolescent psychiatry. The use of the respective psychomotricity school depends on the psychomotrician carrying out the work. The aim is to achieve as holistic an approach as possible in order to be able to offer the children and adolescents help on a relatively broad level. Psychomotor therapies are often paid for by health insurance companies. They are mainly carried out in psychomotor practices, but elements of them can also be found in the work of speech therapists, occupational therapists or physiotherapists. There are also offers in kindergartens and in the area of school sports, but psychomotricity is also used in special and remedial education, where children and adolescents with physical, mental or emotional disabilities are cared for. These often have problems in the areas of cognition, communication, emotion, motor and sensory functions, which can be positively influenced by psychomotoric measures. Meanwhile, there are also many research results that show how important perception and movement are for early childhood development, especially in the areas of cognition, social behavior, language development and emotionality. In psychomotricity, for example, equipment such as rolling boards, balancing gyroscopes or pedalos are used. These address the balance and are very suitable for the promotion of children with developmental problems. The way in which the children discover the equipment is very important. Important contents of psychomotricity are thereby:
- Self and body experiences such as physical expression or sensory experiences.
- Material experiences and learning about the movement
- Social experiences such as communication with the help of movement
- Rule games with rules of the game adapted to a specific situation.
Risks, side effects and dangers
Psychomotor therapy does not pose any dangers, but aims to promote children as early as possible to reduce the risk of any impairments or disorders. In the process, children’s skills should be strengthened and risk factors minimized.
