Block 3: Psychomotor skills for school-aged children

1. Development of psychomotor skills and the construction of the body scheme

In this first paragraph psychomotor skills are contextualized quoting the main element that take part in the process of developing those abilities, stating as well the ages in which each faculty should be achieved according to biological and cultural factors. 

2. Psychomotor education 

The second paragraph cites the skills which are important for every school-ages children and its utility. Also states some activities from which psychomotor skills can be worked in a school.

3. Development of the graphic gestures

The third paragraph reflects the importance of drawing during childhood, how the graphic gesture is developed during the early years along with the psychomotor skills, and what children want to transmit with their drawings. 

Development of psychomotor skills and the construction of the body scheme

The psychomotor skills are understood as the integration of the cognitive, emotional, symbolic and sensorimotor skills applied in a psychomotor context. This context is related with self-control of our psychomotor capacities as well as the motion and strength of our body. The maturation process is linked with the environment. For instance, two kids from the same age may not have the same psychomotor abilities due to the characteristics of their culture and the interaction they have. Nevertheless, in some cases there could be differences in the psychomotor development of two kids from the same culture. In this case the variances are due to genetic inheritance and stimulation that the child receives in order to develop skills. 

Although the individual and cultural context has an impact on the development of the psychomotor skills, there are few aspects which depend on our genetic and biology so every one of us go through this process at some point or another of their life as it is part of our nature. We are talking about the cephalocaudal law and the proximodistal law which are clearly explained and exemplified in the table underneath. 

The ontogenetic changes are five stages that involve the first three years of life for which every child goes through because it is also part of the human being, but the development and achievement of each stage is different in every kid because of the culture and specific needs of the individual.

This video explains the development the psychomotor skills of a child which bears out the information in the table below and also goes into more details. It is easier to understand the theory with this video as we can observe how the child’s skills are evolving in time. 

In order to have a proper development of our psychomotor skills we must construct our body scheme. Its image it is described as a conscious perception of our body in a global and segmentary approach. The process of construction of the body scheme is developed by the information we receive of our body from the interactions between our body and the context. The image we have about our body is constructed by three main aspects:

The first boy image we develop is the perceptual image which is close related with a representation of about body provided by the size and shape of our body. In this way, we have a subjective image about our body but this conception is near to the reality. Once we achieve the perceptual image we develop a cognitive image based on the beliefs and thoughts that we have about our own body. The cognitive image is constructed by self-messages we send to ourselves accord to how we see and consider our body. Those messages answer the question of what do we think about our body. The next and final step to have a proper body image is the emotional image which gathers the information provided by ourselves in the first two images but applied in the emotional field. That means that in this emotional image we develop a level of satisfaction or displease with our shape and size based on the experiences we have had during the first years of our life. When we have the capacity to observe our body from its parts and not just as a whole we can have a positive image about our body but we can be resigned about a specific part of our body because we do not like its shape or because they do not have the utility we want to give them. For example, a girl can be satisfied with her body in a global perspective but can hate her fingers because are too short to play properly the piano and she does not like how rings look on her fingers.  

Therefore, we construct an image about our body since we are in a very young age because when we are still a baby we have an earlier contact with our body than with the environment as we are not able to move so we cannot explore the context. We only know what we are able to see an in the first months of our live we can only observe ourselves. Then, this scheme is developed during childhood firstly by looking at our body in a global way and later by exploring it from the parts that involve the body. Once we have a complete image of our body we develop its identity which means that we start being conscious about our capabilities according to the shape, movement and coordination of our body. When we integrate this corporal self it increases our level of autonomy as we know our abilities and limits, and we can plan what we want to do. This anticipation can be explained in the school context when a child intends to reach a book form a shelf which is taller than him. When he is younger than seven years old he knows that the shelf is in a higher position than him but he tries to grab it anyway. However, when this same child is a older he is aware of his height and the length of his arm and legs so he knows if he has a chance to reach the book on his own because of the proportions of his body or he needs an external help such as the teacher or a stair to take the book. This awareness should be fully developed during preadolescence (11-12 years old). 

Psychomotor education

As we have just seen, we must learn to regulate the motor skills and control them in order to be autonomous and have a proper image of our selves, which can also contribute to a positive self-esteem. One of the frameworks in which this regulate can be worked is in schools. Psychomotor education needs persistence, involvement and systematic education taking into account the paces and rhythms of the students. In school children will work with physical attitudes such us muscular resistance, flexibility and agility. For example, learning about voluntary muscular tension can help them to control their tension when are nervous and their emotions at the same time so this education is not only useful to have a significant control of our body but it also helps us to regulate other aspects of our live such as the emotions as I have just explained. 

Other faculties that are worked in psychomotor development are the body equilibrium, the coordination and the independence in terms of availability to move one part of the body without having to move it all which can be properly developed by the age of eight. An example of this independence is produced when the child writes in a paper without having to be doing something else with his body while he is writing. In previous stages that same child was writing while he had his tongue out of his mouth, but when he is mature enough to develop independence he does not have the need to take his tongue from his mouth.

Independence can be as well related with the muscular tone and its progress when we compare a kid who is four years old cutting a paper with scissors with a nine-year-old-kid who is doing the same task. The younger child could be pressing his hand on the table while the other one is cutting the paper whereas the older one is coordinating both hands to cut the paper: one hand is moving the scissors throughout the paper surface while the other is holding the paper to make the cutting process easier. A different example can be given in the field of physical activities. For instance, if a child has to catch a ball and through it to another kid during a Physical Education session he is likely to grab the ball with both hand and throw it like the needs all the strength that his body can proportionate to perform this task, but when a child has a correct and fully developed body scheme, independence, coordination and muscular tone he knows exactly the strength he has to use and throws it with just one hand, the one he dominates better. 

To develop the skills that I have just listed there are several psychomotor activities that can be done in the school that may help children to have a major control of their body:

Activities can be supported by music as we have just seen in some of the activities. In this case, a teacher is singing a song and her students are dancing a choreography they have learned previously. Children need to remember the movements and do them properly. Their movements should be coordinated.

This other video shows a psychomotor class in which students are asked to go through a circuit with different activities to develop in the same activity different skills.

Development of the graphic gestures

I am quite familiar with children’s drawings as my research project from 2n de bachillerat was about a personality test based on the drawings of a house, tree and a person from children. I spend almost a year readings books about the topic and I analyzed more than a hundred drawings, so I felt more interested about this subject than the others related with the psychomotor skills development as, through the development of the graphic gestures, I can understand the process of drawing during the early ages and how kids develop a graphic scheme. Even though I worked the drawing topic from a more emotional perspective, having more knowledge about other aspects related with the paintings of children are useful to upgrade the previous information I had about children and drawings. 

The importance of drawing is reflected in its significance. In a graphic representation is reflected the reality of the person who did it. Emotions have an important role in this subjective reality. We draw according to our experiences, to our values and beliefs, feelings. Culture is as well a key factor to understand the representation of a kid as he is most likely to represent what is on his mind according to cultural aspects related with his environment. 

If we relate the graphic representation of the reality within a child we must take into consideration that a kid can only draw what he is familiar with, what he knows and perceives, what he is interested in, and also the drawing is influenced by his motor skills. Concretely, the skills bounded with drawings are the development of the thumb and the pincer grip , perpendicular movements (flexion-extension) and rotary movements so they can draw circular forms. 

The drawing of any child goes through noticeable faces. Scribbles are the main element in a drawing of a child who has no more than two years old. In this first stage the child draws automatically what comes to his mind without planning it. Therefore, first comes the action and then the thinking. 

There two distinct kinds of scribble. The uncontrolled scribble involves disorganized lines done in a paper using a high pressure of the motor skills used, in this case the hand which holds the pencil with strength as the kid has not developed the pincer grip yet, without controlling with the sight what the hand is doing, moving the whole arm and shoulder to do the draw and in some cases even the whole body. Gradually the kid would learn to draw with the movement of the elbow, then using just the hand and finally the fingers. During this stage the child has no representative intention so his scribbles are done because of a pleasure issue more.

Six months later, the child keeps drawings and therefore he improves his skills. The kid begins by giving shapes to the prior uncontrolled lines. He is aware of the outcome that results from the movement of his hand on a paper with the pencil. If the previous stage was pleasant for the child, in this controlled scribble he has even more enthusiasm for the graphic gesture as they notice of what they are capable of doing with their hands. The student has visual-motor coordination and therefore he already has a representative intention with his drawings. As he is aware of the power of their motor skills, he plans what he wants to represent and he does. 

At the age of three the kid start giving a name to his drawings which means that he is able to explain and identify every aspect of his drawing even though for someone else’s eyes the drawing itself has no sense or meaning. Consequently, the representative intention is strongly increased as they draw elements that are part of their world. Related with the graphic development, during this third stage they are able to do closed shapes, such a square, and circular shapes like a Sun. They even use colors according to the reality. In previous stages the kid could have drawn a tree with purple leaves but at the age of three the child is susceptible to draw accordingly to the reality. Children even may plan what they are going to draw before doing it. One year later starts the pre-schematic stage in which the representations are more comprehension for external agents. The shapes are known and recognizable. Increasingly, the child is capable of drawing what he knows and remembers instead of just what he is able to see at the moment and the adherence of details is more significant such as the movement represented by some horizontal lines.   

Each time the kid draws and experiments he will perfect and improve his skills. During all faces, communication is an essential aspect as the child is mostly proud of his work and is excited to show it to some adult or peer, and explain what he has drawn. A positive interaction can cause a positive effect in the kid’s self-esteem and willingness to keep polishing his skill.

References

References used to develop Block 3 and Block 4:

Dalton Psychomotor Equipment Brochure (2010). Psychomotor Education
http://daltoneducationtrust.com/psychomotor-education.htm

Unknown. TALLER DE PSICOMOTRICIDAD, JUEGOS Y EXPRESIÓN CORPORAL
http://www.educarm.es/templates/portal/ficheros/websDinamicas/97/edinfantilpsicomotricidad.pdf

Vidal, P. (2013). EJERCICOS PARA TRABAJAR LA MOTRICIDAD FINA Y GRUESA
http://miprofedept.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/ejercicios-para-trabajar-la-motricidad.html

Coronado, P. (2013) El dibujo infantil. La importancia y fases de los garabatos
http://www.naturarla.es/el-dibujo-infantil-la-importancia-y-fases-de-los-garabatos

Alvarez, R. Desarrollo de los procesos cognitivos (aprendizaje - memorización)
http://www.monografias.com/trabajos91/aprendizaje-procesos-cognitivos-observacion-comparacion-resumen/aprendizaje-procesos-cognitivos-observacion-comparacion-resumen.shtml

Cherry, K. What is Perception?
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/ss/perceptproc.htm

González Torreblanca, J. L. Procesos Cognitivos Básicos
https://sites.google.com/a/upaep.mx/metodologia-de-la-investigacion-tecnologia-educativa/procesos-cognitivos-basicos

Annex

Individual or group activites done during the development of the third and forth block of the subject "Learning and Development I". I attach the activities in two different links in case one of them does not work.

1. Essay about Piaget's theory for a further discussion developed in the forum of the classroom. Activity done in group along with Clara Girona, Carla Pretel, Judit Serra and Helena Vilella.
First link
Second link

2. Video developed by two of my parteners - Carla and Judit - in which we experimented with two children with the same age but with different backgrounds, context and schooling prove Piaget's theory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1_zblZmDjE

3. Individual activity about a fragment of the film "The Butterfly Tongue."
First link
Second link