Psycho-motor Therapy

• Psychomotor therapy aims to support and aid an individual’s personal development. It is based on a global view of human beings that considers each individual as a unity of physical, emotional and cognitive actualities, which interact with each other and the surrounding social environment.
• Psychomotor specialists study the body and its expressivity. The body is regarded not merely as a mechanism with neurophysiological developments, but also as a thing with deep-rooted emotional traits, which have come about through motor, sensory and emotional experiences, particularly in early-childhood.

A child will benefit from psycho-motor therapy intervention if they present with any of the following:

• Early Psycho-motor development delay (for infants)
• Motor difficulties (gross/fine motor skills)
• Unusually high or low activity level, (always active or difficulties with attending)
• Unusual fear of movement/heights
• Excessive craving of rough play and/or lack of safety awareness
• Unusual play habits and skills or messy play
• Unusual avoidance of touch or eye contact
• Lack of hand preference
• Poor handwriting/slow written output
• Difficulty with self-care activities including: brushing teeth, combing hair, buttoning a shirt, tying shoes, using utensils such as a spoon or fork.
• Delays in speech (children who have delays in speech often demonstrate Psychomotor difficulties affecting their motor coordination and their cognitive skills)
• Difficulties with cognitive tasks such as following instructions, problem solving and visual organization.
• Delay with drawing skills, copying shapes or letters
• Lack of knowledge in space and time concepts
• Short attention span

PMT focuses on:

• Gross and fine motor skills
• Lateral dominance
• Sensory processing
• Cognitive abilities: visual attention, visual memory, planning and problem solving, visual analysis
• Space and time concepts
• Hand writing skills
• Emotional history affecting activity level, behavior, interaction and cognitive skills (visual attention, memory, planning and problem solving, visual analysis)
• Muscle tone regulation