The psychomotion education
The psychomotion education is an educational practice for the children, which considers the bodily experience as a fundamental element of the development of the person and as an expression of emotional life and the evolution of the cognitive processes.
Psychomotor education focuses on the action and the body. The action is interpreted as a movement full of meaning also at the emotional, sensitive and relational level.
Therefore we can say that the psychomotion practice, working on the body and on the movement of the child acts not only on the motor activity, but also on the emotional, relational and cognitive sphere.
The main goal of a process of psychomotion education is the harmonious development of the child's personality.
In addition to this, during the individual meetings, the psychomotion activity promotes:
- the knowledge and mastery of one's body;
- the organization of the body scheme in relation to time and space;
- the development of the ability to express themselves and to communicate.
Another goal of a process of psycomotion is to increase the attention capacity of the children, an ability often lacking and main cause of school failure.
According to the Bernard Aucouturier’s technique, a psychomotion therapist with important roles in the Italian psycomotion practice, psychomotor education goals can be summarized in three points:
- to encourage the development of the symbolic function through the pleasure to act, create and play;
- to encourage the shift to different levels of symbolization that allows children to live the transition "from the pleasure of acting to the pleasure of thinking the act";
- to encourage the shift to different levels of symbolization that allows children to live the transition " from the pleasure of acting to the pleasure of thinking the act ".
In this way the global maturity of children’s personality and the development of a solid identity can be promoted.
The game and the body during the psychomotor practice
The psycomotor practice is an educational activity that has the recreational one at its centre, the game: the activities where the child expresses all of himself and primary factor for the development of his well-being.
When we talk about the psychomotion education, the game is not just a tool to achieve their goals, but it is a goal itself. In fact using the game the child can fully express himself through the movement: he lives the tone of his body playing and he can also open himself to the narration, inventing and becoming creative.
The game is not just the privileged activities of the children or the primary communication bridge with their world, It is at the same time the more humane way of being in the world and to live a full life, maintaining the proper distance between themselves, the others and the objects.
What discerns the daily play of the child from the game played during the psychomotor session is the specific projects of the latter, which directs and welcomes the spontaneous action within a path intentionally thought.
Within the psychomotor practice the game is not only a goal, it is also a medium that allows children to experience through the use of the body and, therefore, to learn actively and spontaneously. All of this will facilitate the development of structured identities on solid foundations.
The baby's body in locomotion is not only considered in terms of motor, but also, and especially, as preferred means of communication thanks to which a person expresses his mood, his feelings and his suffering.
The body is, in fact, the main means that helps the child living with his feelings and emotions, communicating with the rest of the world and learning new skills by living actively.
As in every act and behavior of a person, his whole personality is involved, it can be argued that working on the body and on the motor activity means working on other deeper levels, such as the affective, cognitive and relational ones.
The psychomotion material
The psycomotion material stimulates different areas of the child and comes to the group within the different stages of the session. The objects used vary depending on the age and the group of children participating at the meeting: some objects, in fact, lead to action and movement, creating an immediate well-being; while others may discourage the movement producing, thus, motor inhibition.
The material needed to carry out a project of psychomotor education differs according to the type of expressiveness that has to develop. It can thus be divided into two types: material for the motor and expressive material for the graphic expressiveness and construction equipment.
The material for the expressiveness motor is made of fixed gears, from soft material, and rigid material.
Some examples of passive gears are the backs, a large wall mirror and stands to support wooden planks for building structures on which to climb, slide or jump.
The soft material is made of cushions of foam rubber covered with fabrics of different colours and of different sizes (used for rolling, swinging or build houses, walls, castles ...), colourful fabrics of various sizes (to use as decks, roofs of houses ... ), small plush animals, dolls in rags, cotton ropes, plastic pipes and foam balls.
The rigid material is made, for example, of circles, sticks, pans of various sizes, plastic buckets and drums.
The material for the graphics expressiveness and for the buildings consists of sheets of different sizes, felt pens or crayons and wooden tiles or classic constructions.
The meeting in psychomotion education
The single meeting of psychomotion education is characterized by the succession of different phases. The first of these is the initial ritual, in which all the children sit on some benches or on chairs placed in a circle. This ritual, which takes place in the child care, gives everyone the opportunity to be heard and to listen to the others. It’s the place of waiting and immobility; in it, in fact, there is no playing activity, but it is time for the children to prepare for the excitement of playing that will take place later.
After the initial ritual, the handler may give the kick-off by clearly making explicit their beginning to the children and setting out, therefore, putting an end to their desire to play. Thus the phase of expressiveness motor begins.
It gives life in this way to the pleasure of the sensorimotor, the pleasure of the unit itself inside a kinesthetic and sensory container. In the sensorimotor game the child has the illusion to perform fabulous actions, feeling that grows more if the psychomotrist recognizes them expressing a sense of admiration.
The sensorimotor pleasure, urging the tactile and visual perceptions of the child and the stimulation of the muscles designated to the balance, is always seen as an excess that allows the child to experience the pleasure of being in an unique environment providing security. The repetition of these experiences, provoking in the child feeling of excess, are necessary for him to overcome the hesitations, the strengths and tonic-emotional anguish.
This moment allows such children to move with their entire body, stimulating and emotionally investing in perception. This activity is severely restricted in today's children, who are often content in their movements and have little chance to play with their body, using every wall.
Children during the psychomotor session are given the opportunity to express themselves with their body; this chance is not an end in itself, but It is subsequently revised, so that the child can acquire adaptive skills and increase the knowledge of himself and of his own body. After a certain number of psychomotor sessions, space for symbolic play is added, "playing to pretend". In this game, children can identify with various characters, such as the mother, the father, the driver, the teacher, omnipotent characters, attackers or victims. The symbolic game refers to the issues of having - not having, being taken or escape, or being seen or to hide. These games, then, allow the child to express himself without worrying of being judged, they provide the ability to transform the reality according to their fears and their pleasures.
Following this phase dedicated to the movement, the children are invited to a moment of stillness, while being told a story or while playing relaxing music. This step is very important because it allows the removal from the force of the emotions given by the intense physical activity. The resulting relaxation facilitates the access to the mental representations that, involving less corporeality, help the transition to the stage of the plastic and graphics expressiveness.
The stage of the plastic and graphics expressiveness provides access to another level of symbolization and decentralization.