Correlation between action, representation, and cognition in early infant psychomotor education sessions: Quantitative analysis

Abstract

The path of psychomotor skills as a methodology of educational intervention in recent decades has led us to review the psychomotor device based on evidence from research and the practice itself. The aim of the study was to determine the correlation between the representation within the psychomotor sessions and the cognitive development of three-year-old children. The study's starting point is the role of the psychomotor therapist of the authors, from which concerns, questions, and the search for new ways of being and doing in early infant education arise in an attempt to deepen, from research, in the framework of psychomotor intervention and child development. A sample of 39 students participated in this study according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria determined by the characteristics of the Merrill-Palmer R instrument. The results show a significant improvement in the scales of Processing Speed, Motor Skills, Memory, and Visuomotor Coordination in the group that performed representations at the end of each psychomotor skills session, compared to the group that did not perform representations in any session. In conclusion, given the improvement in performance shown by all groups, if we compare the pre-test and post-test results of the Merill-Palmer Cognitive Battery, a positive fact seems to be detected in the performance of the representations at the end of the sessions of the Aucouturier Psychomotor Practice (APP) on the cognitive performance of three-year-old boys and girls.