About 80 families participated with their children and youths in the activities promoted by the Centre for Neurodevelopment and Child and Adolescent Behaviour from Hospital da Luz Lisboa, in the week of September 19, to mark the European Day of Psychomotricity. The activities had for main goal to raise awareness to the benefits of psychomotricity and the importance of the body and movement, as a way to express needs, experiences, emotions and learning, but also to bring closer families and clinical team and remind the importance of playing in a healthy development. In the rooms of the center, children and families were challenged, for instance, to explore the game of “Quantos queres?” , adapted by the team of Special Education and Rehabilitation consultation with topics viewing to draw attention to the importance of physical and emotional consciousness activities. Psychomotricity consists in the promotion of global development (cognitive, affective, motor, social and communicational) through organized and integrated movements. The Centre for Neurodevelopment and Child and Adolescent Behaviour has a specialized team of developmental pediatricians and specialists in psychomotor rehabilitation. “We receive from babies to teenagers and carry out activities mainly in the therapeutic and preventive dimensions, in the context of neurodevelopment, behavior and learning. Now, we are also starting to give answer to challenges in the field of mental health”, explains psychomotrician Joana Figueiredo Gonçalves . “We hold individual sessions and some in group, in close collaboration with the school community, the family, and other health professionals. We combine the most adequate methodologies for each case, that can go from relaxation techniques to activities of body / motor consciousness, expressive techniques, playful, therapeutic, pedagogical and recreational activities”, she exemplifies. In the photo above, Paula Vilariça (pedopsychiatrist and the Centre coordinator), Bárbara Salgueiro (neurodevelopmental pediatrician), Joana Figueiredo Gonçalves and Lúcia Garcia (psychomotricians).
