There are many news and notes that run online about the benefits of karate for children.
No one escapes that on the physical plane there is no doubt that the martial art of karate is very complete, getting to work many body parts (hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, feet, knees, hip, belly, chest, etc…)
Instead, the benefits that karate can provide to children on a psychological level are not as popular.
On the Psychological Plane



Children at an early age, this is from the age of 3 to 5, they begin a very important phase of development, the maturation process, psychomotor development.
The maturation of the child’s nervous system will allow him great advances in his motor development. This is evident in aspects such as:
- Better coordination of movements in jumping, running, dancing activities…
- Better movement stakes to handle objects with arms and hands such as throwing and throwing balls.
- His manual skills have advanced achieving greater precision in his movements: painting, scribbling…
In karate we work coordination from an early age,introducing children in that field through games, exchange of objects with both hands, improvement of spatial uptake, games with open and closed hands, etc…
The development of intelligence



In the ages we refer to, around 3 to 5 years, the development of intelligence is beginning, but it has already taken a few steps since birth. The child has already passed the stage of knowing his environment, identifying the most close people, sucking, touching, etc…
In this phase, the imitation of real situations, they see what their parents and brothers do at home, what the teacher does at school and imitates them by playing.
Play is the key
It is through this game (moms, houses, doctors, teachers… ) as the child gets to know what surrounds him and the forms of behavior of adults.
In karate, the Sensei is the figure to imitate, so this phase of intelligence is encouraged
From the age of 4 to 5 he is not able to explain the things that happen, in the same way that adults do. What it does is it brings things together without understanding the real cause: “the clouds move because I move.”
Progressively the five- to six-year-old is abandoning the kind of thinking he used before and discovering the causes of what’s going on around him. This is helped by being in touch with children your age and adults.
This is where karate plays an important role because interacting with other children, having eye contact, closeness, starring and feeling part of a group, accepted and with a sense of respect, will promote development so important at this age.
Affective-Social Development



At this stage of development, the child will experience important changes in his affective-social process as well as a consolidation of his autonomy habits. As a common feature of these years the child remains very integrated in the family environment, being fundamental to him the reference points of his parents and siblings.
Karate can also provide an area of affective-social stability given the experiences children experience in a common acceptance group as the groups that develop in karate assume.
These are the main benefits of karate for children, although in their emotional development, strengthening of personality, as well as in their future development can play an extremely important role.
In later stages such as adolescence, it can also play an important role serving as a leverage strut for a moral and ethical one that leads them to be great people tomorrow.
References:
Child Psychology. Neuropediatra.org
Neurodevelopment in children. neuronup.com
Pediatriaintegral.es


