AWARENESS OF CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT

Awareness of Children's Development



Awareness of Children's Development

Introduction

Researchers disagree on the content of the term body scheme. This becomes clear through the multiplicity of terms used in the literature. This study is based on the trilogy of Kugel to explain the term body scheme. Kugel divides the body scheme in 3 components: body plan (motor), body idea (emotional) and body awareness (cognitive). (Zink 2005 )

The body plan is the organised total of all sensorial and motor structures which determines the automated human behaviour. The human behaviour occurs thus partially unconscious and automated. Through a long learning process of repetition to conditioning or habituation and custom formation the behaviour is learned. Many of our behaviours and motor activities are automated. That's why we sometimes do not even realise how we do them.

Body idea is the subjective judgement, which the child makes through the - positive or negative - criticism of somebody else concerning: the own capacities and the boundaries of the own capacities; and the qualities or specialties of the own physical figure and appearance. The subjective opinion is the most important factor for developing the body idea. This opinion can differ from the objective reality. (Westerlund & Lagerberg2008: 257)

The body awareness is the information a child receives through perception, or through representation or mental picture which a child can obtain. This information involves aspects of: (a) the own physical appearance; (b) movements, as currently performed, respectively can or wants to perform concerning direction, performance and intensity; (c) the position of the body and the body parts in space, and their position towards each other; and (d) the own way of perceiving of what is and happens in his environment (through feeling, hearing or seeing).

In this study we focused on one component of the body scheme, namely on body awareness among 3-6-year-old children with intellectual retardation. These children visit schools which are adapted to the specific educational needs of children with moderate to severe intellectual retardation. The importance of body awareness in this group of children appears from the curricula of motor development and physical education of these schools for toddlers. One of the aims of the curricula is that children are capable of pointing, recognizing and/or naming body parts of their own body, on other people's body or on a picture (Flemish Ministry of Education, 1998). Through moving and acting, impressions and experiences are acquired which help to form body awareness. (Limbergen 2005 )

Language development

Next to sensory-motor experiences, language development is an important aspect of learning which is closely connected to the development of body awareness. Conscious moving and language are coherent concepts. Involving the language development in connection with body parts Gallahue stated that 3-year-old children who are developing normally can point out and name the most important parts of the head (ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth and hair), the trunk (stomach, back, buttocks, bottom and genitals) and the limbs (arms, hands, fingers, thumbs, legs, knees, feet and toes). (Vallaey & Vandroemme 2005 ) By age 4, ...