Giangiacomo Elisa, Visaggi Maria Castellano, Aceti Franca, Giacchetti Nicoletta, Martucci Melania, Giovannone Federica, Valente Donatella, Galeoto Giovanni, Tofani Marco, Sogos Carla
Department of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Children (Basel). 2022 Jul 29;9(8):1142. doi: 10.3390/children9081142.
The aim of the present study is to explore the effect of early neuro-psychomotor therapy to improve theory of mind skills and emotion recognition in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. A pilot study was set up, consisting of in-group training activities based on the neuro-psychomotor approach. Children were evaluated using Neuropsychological Assessment for Child (Nepsy-II), Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC), and Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). For data analysis, one-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test was used with a significance of p < 0.05. Two children with a developmental language disorder and four children with autism spectrum disorders participated in a 3-month training program. Our findings revealed significant improvement in emotion recognition, as measured with Nepsy-II (p = 0.04), while no statistical improvement was found for theory of mind. Despite the limited sample, early neuro-psychomotor therapy improves emotion recognition skills in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, considering the explorative nature of the study, findings should be interpreted with caution.
本研究的目的是探讨早期神经心理运动疗法对改善神经发育障碍儿童心理理论技能和情绪识别能力的效果。开展了一项试点研究，包括基于神经心理运动方法的小组训练活动。使用儿童神经心理评估（Nepsy-II）、情绪理解测试（TEC）和社会沟通问卷（SCQ）对儿童进行评估。数据分析采用单样本Wilcoxon符号秩检验，显著性水平为p < 0.05。两名发育性语言障碍儿童和四名自闭症谱系障碍儿童参加了为期3个月的训练项目。我们的研究结果显示，用Nepsy-II测量的情绪识别能力有显著改善（p = 0.04），而心理理论方面未发现统计学上的改善。尽管样本有限，但早期神经心理运动疗法可提高神经发育障碍儿童的情绪识别技能。然而，考虑到本研究的探索性，研究结果应谨慎解释。
