Issue 3.3: Body Scheme

The first important concept described in this issue is the image, which is explained as the conscious perception of our body. That image is divided in three aspects: the perceptual image, which is the representation, what is understood as the formal part of our body (size, shape, etc), the cognitive image, which is the things that we find implicit in our body structure and the emotional image which is the level of satisfaction that we have with our own body. Those concepts are closely related with the self-concept and the self-esteem, being the first one the formal things about ourselves "how do I see myself?" and the second one the opinion about the self-concept "do I like what I see?".

There were some ideas that I found interesting and that I would like to talk about, the first one is the idea that a kid knows about his or her own body before knowing the world that surrounds his or her. I think it's quite difficult to imagine it because neither any of us remember how we felt when we were so little, but I do like the idea of self-discover without any outside contact like a personal process of exploration, which reminds me at the process of development which I do remember, that period when, although you already knew your body you saw it change and sometimes it was difficult to self-recognize your own figure again, such as when we were babies.  

There are three main stages on the body scheme development, the first one is called "The lived and experienced body" which is placed between 0 and 2 years old, and, as I've said before is the process in which a baby gets to know it's own body. As we mentioned on the Issue 3.1 Coordination and Movement Regulation there are two neurological basis of psychomotor development, the Cephalocaudau Law and the Proximodistal Law, so a children of that age will know their own body in a general way, this is, probably without the specifications of the arms and legs, and they may be more aware of the high trunk that of the low one.

The second stage is called the Perceived body and it's placed between 3 and 7 years old, and in opposition towards the previous stage, in this one kids do start to know all their segmentations of the body, which means that at the same time they will become more capable when achieving higher difficulty actions, such as graving small objects, etc.

Finally the Represented body is the last stage of the body scheme development, in this evolutive moment, when the kid is 7 years old, his or her full awareness of his or her own body (both global and segmented), promotes an achievement of the functional independence and it also increases students autonomy. This is, in other words, when the student it's fully developed and capable to interact with all the objects that surround him or her. He or she is also able to achieve complex actions autonomously, which helps the kid to separate from the adult and start acting independently.

The next area to talk about is the regulative function of the body scheme, it is divided in three parts, the first one is called body conscience and regulation, and it explains the evolution from the equilibrium with a point of support to the automatized laterality, which composes the physical aspect of the body scheme. The second one is the time representation, which talks about different types of time, the physical time, the physiological time, the time intervals perception and the psychological time. Finally we find the Spatiotemporal Structuring, which is divided in three parts too, space representation, the temporal structuring and the awareness of the time relations. All this aspects related with the regulative function of the body scheme together creates the Personal Scheme, which brings us to the Movement Coordination and regulation.