Course:KIN355/2020 Projects/Body Awareness - Body Concept
Defining the Concept and Its Importance
Body awareness refers to an individual’s capability to comprehend their own body position in relation to movement performance as well as how to produce those various movements. There are multiple concepts that come along with learning body awareness that contribute to early childhood development, one of which includes body concept. Within the first two years of childhood, infants show signs of body awareness in terms of representing and reflecting on themselves as individualistic, objective entities. Examples include recognizing themselves in the mirror or referring to themselves by name. Body awareness provides a foundation for future self-regulation, self-concept and self-identity (Brownell et al., 2007). That being said, the importance of a child’s development in body awareness as well as the concepts that come along are vital to motor movement and functioning skills.
With time, children come across obstacles that they face every day such crawling around different obstacles, picking up or playing with objects. That being said, children must have the foundation of body awareness, in order to avoid or attain objects they are playing with. Children attempt to mediate the spatial environment and the relationships among objects within the environment in order to develop awareness of themselves as an objective entity existing and interacting with the external environment. The understanding of their independent self develops as the infant gains recognition of how to represent the body’s special and causal relations with the outside world (Piaget 1954; cited in Moore et al., 2007). The concept of ‘body concept’ is rather crucial with respect to physical movement action/planning in order to avoid hitting the couch or having the ability to pick up a Barbie Doll. Body concept is the ability for an individual to identify specific components of their body. From as young as nine months, infants reveal recognition to their noses and ears, to 18 months, where ears, hands and feet are now accumulated. By the age of eight-nine, children are able to identify all parts of their body, showing minimal error. Acquiring awareness of their body does not come autonomically, but alternatively with instruction. The learning process of body concept can come in through different forms, such as language. Teaching a child activities and games that facilitates body concept can equip them in future reference to understanding their body and functional movements. Games include ‘Simon Says’ where they are focusing on which body part to act upon. These types of games can reflect visual self-recognition, as it is the gold standard for identifying the development of body awareness (Brownell et al., 2007).
Role in Childhood Development and Contemporary Considerations
Research on the body concept have shown that multisensory information is vital for the concept itself (Zmyj et al., 2011; cited in Filippetti et al., 2015) as well as the outward signals are important for maintaining cohesive and unitary representation of the body (Bahrick and Watson 1985; Rochat and Morgan 1995; Schmuckler 1996; Morgan and Rochat 1997; Reddy et al. 2007; cited in Filippetti et al., 2015). Moreover, infants can visually differentiate between visual and tactile stimuli when the visual information is in relation to the body (Filipetti et al., 2013; cited in Filipetti et al., 2015).
As children grow older, with body awareness continually developing, they are able to participate in games that are more complex in motor skills. The study conducted by Moore et al., supported the idea of older infants performing well on tasks with themselves and with objects. In the younger group, performance was poorer when the self-task (child was restricting from object to move) followed the object task (distinct object was restricting from object to move), whereas the older children performed both tasks with no change in performance level. Because the older children were able to perform both tasks (self and with object) without any significance, this suggested that their sense of body concept and body awareness was much more developed as the older children had more experience with locomotion. (Moore et al., 2007). These results advocated for body awareness and body concept come hand in hand yet are developed enough to be considered separately. Aside from fine and gross motor development required in these activities, body awareness begins to decline with age (Brownell et al., 2007). A child must not only be able to acquire information about the toys/objects in order to plan appropriate responses. They must also identify themselves independently with respect to their environments and the objects in relation to their surroundings in order to plan for said responses (Brownell et al., 2007). A past study from Georgiou et al., examined the differences in body awareness and the interaction with everyday physical activity. It was shown that higher body awareness is associated with stronger physical performance in children. Physical fitness has already revealed numerous benefits, both psychologically and physiologically. Therefore, it is also vital for children to develop body concept for self-regulation of health-related behavior in early childhood development (Farb & Mehling, 2016).
Practical Applications
- Modified Simon Says
| Activity: Modified Simon Says
Age group: 4 -18 years |
Equipment:
1 small object per group (sandbag, tennis ball) |
Number of Players
2 players, or 3 if the group has uneven numbers. |
Safety:
Proper footwear Awareness of other players |
Purpose Statement
| Modified Simon Says - The goal of this activity is to encourage body awareness and self-regulation with a competitive component added in order to increase the effort, and engagement while developing the player’s ability to respond quickly. This game can be played at any age as the modification makes it fun for the older athletes as well. |
Instructions, Set Up, & Modifications
| Set-Up | Instructions | Teaching Cues / Error Corrections |
| -Sandbags will be set on the floor in a straight line about 3 feet apart. ( Set-Up will depend on the amount of space available and the number of players). | - Set Up the players.
“ Form two lines, .One line on one side of the sandbag and another line on the other side of the sandbag. Face the sandbag -We will be playing a modified version of ‘Simon Says’. I will call various body parts such as head, shoulder knees, and toes, and you have to touch that body part with both of your hands. But, when I say ‘BAG” you quickly have to grab the bag that is on the floor in front of you before the other player. |
- If the players are older 6+ years old after each round of 10-15 seconds call for new players by saying “ everyone takes one step to the Left” this way each player will have someone new to play against and a mix of win/losses.
- For older groups/players who show a more advanced body awareness, aside from body parts integrate different movements such as jump, sprawl, single leg jump, squat, etc. |
- Pole Game
| Activity: Movement Mirror
Age group: 4 -18 years |
Equipment:
1 pole per player (Pole can be hockey sticks, dowel, broomsticks) |
Number of Players
3 or more |
Safety:
Proper footwear |
Purpose Statement
| Movement Mirror - The goal of this activity is to encourage body/movement awareness by listening to the coach’s call (either movement or movement direction) identifying the call, performing the action quickly, and with control of their movement. Coordination is also a big component as players will have to use both left and right hand. |
Instructions, Set Up, & Modifications
| Set-Up | Instructions | Modifications |
| -Each player grabs a pole
- Everyone forms a big circle, standing. |
- “Hold the pole with your left hand and have your right hand behind your back. I will say Left or Right.
-When I say Left, you have to leave the pole free-standing (not holding it) and quickly step to the left and grab the other person’s pole who was just there with your left hand. -Same, if “right’ gets called. -After a few rounds switch hands, right hand does the grabbing and left hand behind the back. |
- If the players are older (10+), or more experienced:
The coach can integrate more movements such as a jump, squat, 360 turns all while leaving the pole free standing. - More rules can be integrated: If the pole drops or you failed to get it you are eliminated, or you can have 3 tries. It all depends on age and group. |
- Knee Tag
| Activity: Knee Tag
Age group: 4 -18 years |
Equipment:
4 cones per group |
Number of Players
2 or more per group |
Safety:
Proper footwear Proper awareness of other players |
Purpose Statement
| Knee Tag - This game increases body awareness as each player must consider where they are in space, understanding distance and how far the player is from them, and knowing if they are ina vulnerable position to get a tag or in a position that makes them slow. This game also develops a change of direction ability. The perimeter they are in forces the players to think where they are at in relation to the perimeter. |
Instructions, Set Up, & Modifications
| Set-Up | Instructions | Modifications |
| -With the 4 cones set up a 6x6 perimeter
-2 players in the square |
- “When I say go each player will try to tap their partner’s knees. Every time they tag their partner’s knees to gain one point” | - The game can be more challenging through one or more modifications:
-One hand behind the back - Instead of tagging the knee have to tag the feet incorporating the ability to stay low to the floor. - after 3 points player wins 10-second intervals = easy 15 seconds moderate 20 seconds difficult |
- Tumbling Race
| Activity: Tumbling Race
Age group: 4 -18 years |
Equipment:
Space, small jump box (depends on age and ability) cones |
Number of Players
1 + |
Safety:
Proper footwear |
Purpose Statement
| This game integrates a variety of tumbling movements that develop body awareness and control. |
Instructions, Set Up, & Modifications
| Set-Up | Instructions | Modifications |
| -Divide the group into 2 equal groups. Have a starting place for each group (at least 8 ft apart from each other).
Set another cone 10 to 15 yards away. -Each group will stand behind their standing cones in a single line |
- On my GO, the person in front of the line will bear crawl as fast as they can to the second cone, touch the cone, and bear crawl back. You must high-five the person who is next before they can go.
- Once everyone in the team has gone, the team has won. Example of tumbling movement: Bear Crawl (forwards, backward, sideways) Crabwalk, Army Craw, Summer Sault, Cartwheels, Butt Scoot, Backwards Roll, Single-Leg Hops, |
- Small groups can do one movement per game and switching the movement to the next round. With bigger groups, the coach can let the players know he will be calling out different movements to provide variety and also to call a movement that may be more suitable for the person who is next in line. |
Summary
Insert video vignette...as per Section 4 requirements.
References
Brownell, C. A., Zerwas, S., & Ramani, G. B. (2007). "so big": The development of body self-awareness in toddlers. Child Development, 78(5), 1426-1440. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01075.x
Farb, N., DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books, & Frontiers Books. (2017). Interoception, contemplative practice, and health. Place of publication not identified: Frontiers Media SA.
Filippetti, M. L., Lloyd-Fox, S., Longo, M. R., Farroni, T., & Johnson, M. H. (2015). Neural mechanisms of body awareness in infants. Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991), 25(10), 3779-3787. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhu261
Moore, C., Mealiea, J., Garon, N., & Povinelli, D. J. (2007). The development of body self-awareness. Infancy, 11(2), 157-174. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7078.2007.tb00220.x