Stages of Sensomotor Correction in Self-Regulation Development of Junior Schoolchildren

Self-regulation development can be described as a process having multilayer causation. Following Nikolaeva (1991), we consider selfregulation as a system process, supporting relevant to the conditions changeability, flexibility of person’s life activity. The self-regulation model (Nikolaeva, 1991) consists of three levels (the level of selfregulation of psychic states, the operational and the motivational levels). The aim of the current research was to influence on malfunction of the first level of self-regulation. The experimental group included 30 students in the age of eight-nine years having problems with school education because of instability and lack of concentration. The control group consisted of 32 children of the same age with the same problems not taking part in the intervention course. The basic diagnostics method was the Luria’s neuropsychological battery of tests, adapted by Semenovitch (2002). The intervention method, applied in this study, was the method of sensomotor correction (Goryacheva, Sultanova, 2003). It is based on the Luria’s theory of three functional blocks of brain (Luria, 1962) and focuses on normalization of first functional block of brain by means of motion. The correction process included four stages with special exercises (breathing, locomotory, oculomotor etc.) each one. Some basic exercises were performed throughout the whole intervention period. During eight months the children have been having two one-hour group sessions per week. Each group consisted of 6 persons. Comparison with the control group has shown that the sufficient positive changes of self-regulation level have taken place in the experimental group. Improving of school results, more pronounced in experimental group, also confirms that sensomotor correction is a powerful way of self-regulation development.