EN
Introduction: Children with psychomotor retardation demonstrate lower than average level of development, that is characteristic for the majority of population in a certain period of life. These children require specialised, coordinated and interdisciplinary therapeutic efforts. The aim of the present thesis was to assess the influence of choreotherapy on the development of children with psychomotor retardation. Material and methods: The study consisted of two measurement sessions of 4-6 years old children attending for therapeutic activities to the Early Intervention Centre in Mielec. The research tool was the Bogdanowicz Behaviour Observation Scale (SOZ-D). Basic descriptive statistics were calculated in the analysis. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to assess differences in psychomotor development between the examined group (participating in the therapeutic program which included choreotherapy) and the control group. The rate of improvement was tested by means of the ANOVA Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: There were statistically significant differences between both the examined and the control group in all subscales of the SOZ-D scale. At children participating in the experimental program the greatest improvement was noticed in emotional, social and physical spheres of development. Conclusions: The applied therapeutic program had a beneficial effect on stimulating the development of emotional, social and physical spheres of children with psychomotor retardation. The present thesis demonstrates the usefulness of this program, and consequently implies the need of propagating the therapy in other educational and care centres for children.