Abstract:

Scientific literature and my experience show that soon after starting elementary school, some children start demonstrating learning difficulties, behavioural problems, and learning disorders. In many cases, it can be established that the problem is caused by the immaturity of the child’s nervous system. (Niklasson Mats, 2013).

There are several symptoms of the immature nervous system. Some of them present themselves as the low level of skills required for learning and the failure to perform at the level that can be expected in view of the child’s age and IQ.

Behavioural and social problems can be caused indirectly by learning difficulties, but the immaturity of the nervous system can directly influence behaviour.

The immaturity of the nervous system of the children I studied is caused by persistent infant reflexes. These reflexes influence children’s learning abilities directly and indirectly. They affect the maturation of the vestibular organ in the inner ear, and through this, every movement, including the fine motor movements of the tongue, the extraocular muscles, and the fingers, which affect speech production, reading, and writing.

Primitive reflexes may result in a severe lack of independent movements, prevent the development of serial perception, lead to perceptual disorders, hinder the development and functioning of simultaneous attention and the exertion of appropriate amounts of force both in gross and fine motor movements. They can have a negative effect on attention focus and can cause problems in coordination. These difficulties are related to learning performance. (Sally Goddard Blythe, 2015)

Sensorimotor exercises can further the development of the immature nervous system. The sensorimotor therapy and training I devised considers the ontogenesis of the child.

Persistent infant reflexes can block or hinder the development of many skills and competences on which more complex learning processes are based. (Donauer, 2010)

My research is carried out in two directions. First, I examine how Individual Sensorimotor Training affects the maturity of the nervous system and how this change is connected to the state of learning abilities.

Second, I explore whether the Integrated Complex Group Sensorimotor Training I devised, when used with 5–6-year-old kindergarten children, can lead to such results that the maturity of children starting elementary school reaches the physiologically expected level. Can we expect a decrease in learning, behavioural, and social difficulties if children start school with a mature nervous system?

The efficacy of the Individual Sensorimotor Training is examined with 100–120 children aged 5–14. The period of the development programme is 6–16 months.

The efficacy of the Group Sensorimotor Training is examined with 45–50 kindergarten groups with children aged 5–7. The period of the development programme is 8 months. (120 sessions)

Certain elements of the sensorimotor maturity test and the tests on persistent reflexes are used as input measures.

Output measures include the test mentioned above and certain elements of the Dyslexia Prevention Test.
During individual therapy, semi-structured interviews are conducted with the parents. The SPSS and MAXQDA systems are used to analyse data.

Keywords:

Learning difficulties, behavioural problems, learning disorders, immaturity of nervous system, persistent infant reflexes, elementary school.