SENSORIMOTOR THERAPY: PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REGRESSIONS CONTRIBUTE TO AN IMPROVED KINESTHETIC AND VESTIBULAR CAPACITY IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH MOTOR DIFFICULTIES AND CONCEN- TRATION PROBLEMSМ

Abstract

Our aim was to gain increased understanding of the effects of sensorimotor therapy on the physical and psychological development of children and young people when using the method Retraining for Balance. The records of 8 children who had completed the program were randomly selected from a cohort of 232 with sensorimotor difficulties and concentration problems. The participants, 7 boys and 1 girl, averaged 9 years of age. The Empirical Phenomenological Psychological method (the EPP-method, Gunmar Karlsson, 1995) was used for this analysis, which resulted in 29 categories which yielded 3 over- arching themes: a) the introduction of sensorimotor exercises, b) regression to earlier sensorimotor and psychological behaviors, and c) transformations in which the sensori- motor and psychological skills of the children matured and developed. The themes formed the kinesthetic-vestibular developmental model illustrating how sensorimotor ex- ercises push the therapy process forward while recurrent regressions are followed by pos- itive developmental phases. The results of the study were generalized to the remaining 224 children in the cohort by comparing each individual‟s records to the kinesthetic- vestibular model.

Keywords: kinesthetic, sensorimotor therapy, regression, Retraining for Balance, vestibular, psychological development, kinesthetic-vestibular developmental model.