Psychomotor development and sports practice in primary school: Application of the APCM test for preventive purposes

Abstract

All the most modern currents of studies that deal with the well-being and growth of young people today recognize the need for exercise and movement as a basis for psycho-physical development and as a maintenance of good body and mental health (Slutzky and Simpkins, 2009). Movement is the active tool that allows you to acquire awareness of yourself through the body and self-care through the achievement of the well-being of the body itself. It plays an irreplaceable role necessary to reach, implicitly, but often explicitly, a state of good health, keeping vigilant and efficient all those gears that collaborate in the functioning of a healthy body and serve to maintain a living, thinking and active being for a long time ( Strong, 2005). The importance of the role of the movement must be promoted by the School because it is the fabric in which the new and more in-depth skills of teachers and the additional necessary means can be made available alongside physical education. It was conducted a field research through the APCM-2 protocol (Sabbadini, 2018) on a sample of 281 children. The survey, carried out on a sample of primary school pupils, aimed to evaluate the psychomotor development and cognitive-adaptive functions in relation to sport activity. The results highlight the strong relationship between sport practice and psychomotor and cognitive development. Low levels of cognitive-adaptive functions are sometimes predictors of possible learning disorders and/or school learning problem, if identified early, can be compensated for and monitored with appropriate educational interventions.