Espaces psychiques et cognition de l'espace chez des enfants atteints d'infirmité motrice d'origine cérébrale

Abstract

Cerebral Palsy (CP) involves disabilities which influence the psychological development. CP changes the relationship with social environment and the organisational role plays by caretakers. CP prevents the sensori-tonic dialog of the maternal function and it affects the dialectical link between psychic schema of transformation and psychic schema of envelope [2]. Therefore, children with CP develop psychic envelopes which are strong and inflexible, impairing in this way the passage between the real world to the mental life. We can also find this phenomenon in the cognitive area. Children with CP instantiate analogical depictive representations built on motor experiences which involve the whole body. Motor impairments influence the construction of analytical, sequential representations which are constructed by internalizing and coordinating motor manipulations [29,30]. We think that the features of mental spaces and spatial cognition are organized on the same model and it means a difficulty to think about transformations.