Body awareness in preschool children with psychiatric disorder.
Expect body-part vocabulary delays in preschool clients with any psychiatric diagnosis—check both pointing and naming before teaching self-care.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested the preschoolers. Half had a psychiatric diagnosis like ADHD or anxiety. Half were matched controls.
Each child sat at a table. The adult asked, "Point to your nose." Then, "What is this?" while touching an elbow.
They counted how many body parts each child could point to and name. The test took ten minutes.
What they found
The clinical group named fewer body parts. They also pointed to fewer parts when asked.
The gap was medium-sized. It showed up for both receptive and expressive labels.
How this fits with other research
Chuthapisith et al. (2007) saw the same pattern in Down syndrome. Both studies found medium language gaps in preschoolers with any neurodevelopmental condition.
Jansen et al. (2013) went further. They split language-delayed kids into four clusters. Joint attention and symbol use were the keys. If a child lacks those, body-part words are often late too.
Meier et al. (2012) looked at siblings of autistic children. Standard language tests looked fine, but real conversation samples showed gaps. The lesson: ask kids to name parts during play, not just in pictures.
Why it matters
Body-part words open doors to safety, toileting, and pain reports. If a client cannot name "tummy," you will miss stomach aches. Start your assessment with a quick point-and-name checklist. Teach the missing labels first, then move to harder self-care skills.
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Join Free →Pull out a doll or draw a simple person. Ask the child to point to five parts, then name five. Note the misses and target those first.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the body awareness of preschool children with a psychiatric disorder as measured by the test imitation of gestures (Bergès & Lézine, 1978), using the subsections for pointing to body parts (passive vocabulary) and naming body parts (active vocabulary). Seventy-seven children from 37 to 72 months of age with psychiatric disorders and 67 children without psychiatric disorders were matched for age and sex. A MANOVA indicated no significant interaction effects on the results between the sexes in the psychiatric group and the control group for passive vocabulary (F(1,150)=.59, p≥0.05) or for active vocabulary (F(1,150)=.61, p≥0.05). An ANOVA was conducted to determine the differences between the boys and girls for passive and active vocabulary, and the differences between the psychiatric group and the control group for passive and active vocabulary. No significant differences between the boys and girls for passive vocabulary (F(1,150)=1.968, p≥0.05) and active vocabulary (F(1,150)=1.57, p≥0.05) were found. There was a significant difference between the psychiatric and the control group for passive vocabulary (F(1,150)=9.511, p=0.002) and active vocabulary (F(1,150)=16.18, p=0.00009). The study provides support for the presence of language disorders associated with active and passive body awareness in children with psychiatric disorders compared to typically developing children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.02.011