par Geelen, Francine 
;Dreze, D.;Cormeau, André ;Breschi, F.;Beccari, R.
Référence Journal of the neurological sciences, 5, 2, page (209-246)
Publication Publié, 1967-09
;Dreze, D.;Cormeau, André ;Breschi, F.;Beccari, R.Référence Journal of the neurological sciences, 5, 2, page (209-246)
Publication Publié, 1967-09
Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | The experiment concerned 183 (109 Belgian and 74 Italian) children aged 3-6, divided into half-year groups. The maximum deviation in including a child in an age group was 15 days, counting from the anniversary date. Each group consisted of either 20 or 30 children. The tests covered what is known as the body schema, body knowledge, spatial orientation, perceptive-constructive analysis, etc. The scoring techniques were care-fully elaborated at the onset, and maintained throughout the experiment even if certain imperfections became apparent in the course of the study. The order of presentation of observations and our designations of the tests imply no continuity. We have deliberately used descriptive terms in the hope of attaining a better understanding of the mechanisms active at the summit of the correlative approach. We adopted the following order: 1. (1) Gestural tests; 2. (2) Knowledge of body parts; 3. (3) Utilization of surrounding space; 4. (4) Identification tests; 5. (5) Constructing and drawing; 6. (6) Temporal structuration. Our study of correlations would seem to warrant the following conclusions. The period from age 4 1 2 to age 6 seems to be crucial for the development of activities of realization based on the utilization of an object-stimulus complex which must not only be perceived as a whole but analysed in its details and in the overlapping of its components. It is this moment of analysis that we regard as fundamental; we believe it constitutes what may be called the "intelligent" moment of action during this period of development. The modes of execution-with the whole body, arms, hands or fingertips clasping blocks or pencil-seem to be relatively unimportant (provided of course that the child has a normal motor system). It can be stated in general terms that a child able to analyse a situation at the level of perception, is able also to copy this situation. We qualify this interpretation of our data as "ascending" in the order of development. We cannot similarly proceed in a "descending" line on this side of the moment of analysis. We established with certainty that a child aged between 3 and 4 1 2 years responds to massive, gross stimuli (forms, colours, objects); but we found no correlation between the overall gait and the detailed steps, nor did we establish the degree to which the latter's sophistication depends on practice in the former. We have mentioned an absence of correlations between the identification tests and the perceptive-constructive tests; in this context this is inconclusive, however, because the identification tests were too easy to remain discriminating (it may be pointed out, however, that colour perception seems to facilitate perceptive-constructive activities). © 1967. |
