Early childhood pros: how did you want to tell stories in your psychomotorician practices?
Pascale Pavy : 20 years ago, I worked as a psychomotrician in a pediatric and rehabilitation hospital with toddlers and I wanted to transmit my knowledge so that they were taken up by caregivers with toddlers. That's why I imagined Formala game of hands, to approach intrusive care on the baby's body, like a bite, lightly and playful. My words also aimed at consciousness and body scheme as well as motor coordination. Some nurses have grabbed it and as it worked, I imagined other stories with the hands and this is how The great.
What do they have “great” for toddlers?
Each character is played by the posture of the hand that mimics the story. The hand makes caresses, kisses, plays on the body and in space. There are rhymes and rhythm. The child combines sound with a gesture and he becomes an actor in history. In this book, which is therefore told with the hands and with the body, the exchanges are joyful between children and adults, verbal and bodily communication is reinforced. From his pleasure of being in movement, the child becomes aware of his body and coordinates his movements.
You have just published a new series at Larousse with my little story to mimic. Does it use the same principle?
Yes with, in addition, in each title, a story and several entrance doors: motor, sensory, cognitive, neurological and psycho-affective. Take the example of Clac clack, small crab :
On the crabs rock, everything is calm chuuuut!
We only hear the waves of the Ocean Chchchch
(Place the index finger on the lips with the CHUUUT, then mimic the waves with the right hand by ripping the front arm back to the chchchch)
The mirror neurons are activated in the brain at the simple view of these two gestures. They will allow the toddlers to strengthen the neural circuits that generate these actions. As its development and its ability to reproduce the engine gesture, these neurons make it possible to connect the movements it observes to its own movements. Any imitated gesture that has a meaning – just like the gesture of laying the index on the lips by associating the CHUUT onomatopoeia – will bring the child into the world of representation, representation by gesture and sound. This is the principle of rhymes but there, there is the book support which adds a mental representation thanks to the image associated with sound and gesture …
-For you, the book is therefore a support that also accompanies the engine development of toddlers
For me, it's obvious. Children's stories and books also have a psychomotor dimension. In any case, it is my way of apprehending them as a author. And as the book is a medium that can be transmitted, I know that early childhood professionals seize it. In the training that I lead, I see that they appropriate books in a bodily manner, they understand all the psychomotor benefits for the child.
This requires putting your own body in motion … How do you make them want to read by getting bodily?
Body approach can be scary but in training, professionals quickly become aware of their gestural and facial spontaneity, they realize that gestures or expressions come naturally because they are associated with history. It's not just the voice that tells it. The whole body can set in motion, even the faces via expressions. Most books for toddlers allow it because the body and psychomotor dimension is present in the stories for children. Videos accompany the little stories to mimic to be inspired by it, but there is not a model to follow.
If the professional does not feel it, she can stick to a more static reading, from the moment the pleasure is there. The main thing is that the reader or the reader perceives himself naturally. At no time do the motor aspects overload the senses of toddlers, there is no to theatrical the story, just letting the expression that seems just at the time of the story.
Especially since books, including yours, summon other dimensions, including sensory and emotional …
As a psychomotrician, we take into account not only the engine domain but also the emotional, cognitive and sensory fields. In his approach to the book, the young child makes links between what he sees, what he hears, what he touches but also what he perceives from our motor expression … All this allows him to make sense to the content of the story, to identify your emotions and why not play with your fears. These moments of triangular relationship (child, adult, book) are very important to strengthen emotional security. On this essential basis, the imagination, the knowledge and attention of the toddler is stimulated.
Your latest book, which has just appeared at Casterman, is very different … how professionals can appropriate it ?
It is a mirror book that highlights free motor skills. Unlike the little stories to mimic, there is no story calling on the child's imagination, but the illustrations and words will allow him to have mental images of his body and his motor games. As he has just come out, I could not yet observe how professionals appropriate it. It would be interesting if, as soon as they see the child take his support on the ground to move or settle in a position, they show him the image and tell the corresponding text in Look at what I can do. The mirror effect would then be guaranteed!
