Moving With Confidence – How Psychomotor Therapy Could Help Your Early Learners
With psychomotor therapy you can support children’s physical development and promote the positive ‘self-concept’ essential to successful learning, says Isabelle Walser…
We all want our children to be safe and healthy – but can we guarantee that they will be either of those by removing them from all risk?
Should we, for example, forbid them to balance on walls, or remove climbing and swinging equipment because they could fall and harm themselves?
Schools tend to err towards this type of policy in an effort to prevent injuries, but banning children from climbing a tree to ensure they don’t fall out makes them dependent, rather than skillful, and hinders their sense of risk and judgement, which consequently causes more accidents. No, if we want our children to land safely on their feet when jumping off a wall, we need to allow them to climb and leap, while teaching them the skills needed to avoid injury. But how can we best do that?
Mental processes and physical skills
With the children at Yew Tree Primary School in Walsall, I am using aspects of psychomotor therapy. While it is not common in the UK, in Switzerland, where I trained, it is a long-established form of pedagogical and therapeutic support available to pupils in all schools. The approach emphasises the connection between mental processes and physical skills. Therapeutic support requires a safe 1:1 setting and aims to strengthen a child’s resources and increase their intrinsic motivation, while decreasing avoidance behaviour and psychological strain.
Another aspect, ‘psychomotor prevention’, on the other hand, seeks to prevent developmental difficulties and is performed in a group setting. Accident prevention is one of psychomotor prevention’s main objectives, and it is this I want to highlight here. Psychomotor prevention’s value in helping children to manage their own risk is proven. A three-year study carried out by the Förderverein Psychomotorik Bonn investigated its efficacy in developing risk competence in preschool children, and the outcome was clear – in 15 kindergarten schools where psychomotor prevention was implemented, accidents were reduced dramatically. This was because psychomotor prevention teaches children to recognise risks and effectively enables them to avoid having accidents.
Psychomotor prevention in practice
We have a duty to create safe and stimulating environments in which children can balance, climb, slide, swing, jump and experiment – activities which allow children to develop both their body-image and physical competences. Subsequent physical activity will help develop their bodily strength too, which can further actively prevent injuries from occurring.
Case study 1 – Paul Paul attends two weekly psychomotor prevention sessions with five other nursery children in the school’s PE hall. After an initial greeting game, the little eagle (a hand puppet) introduces himself. He shows the children the mountain (a bench adjacent to a trestle) and asks the children to help him climb up the mountain, so he can learn how to fly. Step by step I show the children how to climb, balance, jump and slide down. Paul is fascinated by the eagle but doesn’t want to climb up the mountain. “I can’t do it,” he says. I encourage him to try, and offer to climb with him, but I don’t force him.
After a few sessions Paul feels safe enough to give it a go. When balancing over the bench, he asks to hold my hand. Over a period of time, Paul eventually manages to balance over the bench by himself, crawling slowly on his knees. When he successfully jumps off the bench onto the mat, landing safely on his feet, Paul turns around with a beaming smile, saying, “I’ve done it, I’ve done it myself!”
Two minutes later, all he wants to do is climb up the mountain again.
This example illustrates how children develop a sense of self-efficacy through self-initiated action. By shooting dragons with beanbags or successfully climbing a ‘mountain’, children not only improve their hand-eye coordination and shoulder mobility but also acquire ‘body experiences’ and create their body image. Together, these build part of a child’s self-concept – how he or she feels and thinks about him or herself. Movement is at the heart of a positive self-concept, and when developed through children’s self-initiated action, it drives all learning. The more capable children feel, the more motivation they have to give something a go and to try overcome any physical and academic hurdles they might face.
Supporting wellbeing
The effectiveness of psychomotor prevention at Yew Tree Primary School has been evaluated regularly with parent and teacher questionnaires and the results are promising. Every one of the caregivers who responded stated that their child had been enjoying the activity, and that it had supported their development. Furthermore, many felt that children’s behaviour had changed in a positive way, and that they now enjoyed climbing, jumping and balancing more than they had previously. Similarly, teachers and practitioners have stated that pupils’ emotional, social and physical development improved dramatically as a result of their participation. It has also been apparent that children who attend psychomotor prevention are more resilient during the transition between year groups, and that as their emotional and social wellbeing has developed, their attendance has also improved.
Case study 2 – Tom I had noticed that Tom hadn’t been attending nursery for a while. When I called his dad I was told that Tom didn’t want to come to nursery because he had no friends. Tom’s attendance was 54.4% at this point. I had been observing Tom during nursery and could confirm that he played alone and struggled to connect to other children. After three weeks, during which Tom attended two weekly psychomotor prevention sessions, his attendance increased to 100%! His social skills and self-confidence improved too.
By the end of the academic year, Tom had been attending weekly psychomotor sessions for almost 12 months. By then I had observed Tom talking and playing freely with other children, and initiating games involving others. Tom is now in Reception, having smoothly and happily mastered the transition from nursery to his new class.
Try it yourself
Psychomotor prevention doesn’t necessarily need to take place in PE halls with benches and trestles – playgrounds and classrooms can also be suitable for sessions. Play tennis with balloons; turns somersaults on mattresses; construct tunnels from chairs and tables for children to crawl through, simulate a bear cave; imagine that a hammock is a space shuttle! There are countless ways to support children’s self-concept and movement skills, and every willing person can play an essential role in their development. If you want to help children overcome their physical challenges by ‘doing it for themselves’, start with the following:
• Check with parents beforehand whether children have any particular difficulties or special needs (such as a need to wear orthopaedic shoes or some form of visual impairment, for example)
• Select and set up the equipment according to children’s abilities; everybody needs to be able to succeed
• Establish a series of rules that all the children must follow:
– Look after, and be kind to others – Wait your turn – Only jump, slide or climb when nobody is under or in front of you – Jump only by landing on both feet and bending your knees to absorb the weight – Never let go with your hands when climbing.
• Observe the children at all times, but only intervene if a child’s safety is at risk or any of the above rules are being broken
• Climb, jump, balance alongside the pupils, so as to teach them the required techniques and encourage them
• Ensure the equipment you use meets the highest health and safety standards
Isabelle Walser is a kindergarten teacher and psychomotor therapist; for more information, visit www.psychomotortherapy.org
