Movement Therapy and Childhood Obesity

The Effect of Movement Therapy on the Success in a Multidisciplinary Intervention for the Treatment of Childhood Obesity

The Child health and Sports Center, Meir Medical Center, has an intervention program to treat obese children. The program includes physical activity, nutritional intervention and behavioral treatment.The emphasis given in the center to physical activity and sport enables a strong connection with movement therapy. Movement therapy allows obese children to face and cope with the psychological and emotional aspects of obesity.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the contribution of the movement therapy intervention to our program.

Movement therapy is part of the multidisciplinary intervention. Weekly one hour long sessions are conducted under the guidance of a certified therapists.

The meeting includes physical movement aimed to address the emotional world of the obese child. Using games, structured exercises and verbal processing.

At the start and end of the evaluation the children will answer questionnaires to study:

1. Behavioral questionnaires:emotional state: anxiety, depression, communication, self-esteem, quality of life and self-efficacy.
2. Demographic questions . At the beginning and the end of the program a certified movement therapist will observe the children to estimate the change of emotional movement.weight, height and BMI are measured regularly in the center.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Overweight/obese children

Exclusion Criteria:

• Child that do not want to take part in this study