GORODSCY, Regina C. (1990) – A criança hiperativa e seu corpo: um estudo compreensivo da hiperatividade em crianças [The hyperactive child and his/her body: a comprehensive study of hyperactivity in children]. Doctoral Thesis. São Paulo (SP), Instituto de Psicologia da USP, 166 pp.
Longitudinal prospective research was achieved in order to study a group of hyperactive children that were between 7 and 12 years old, who were taken care of in a public psychiatric hospital ambulatory. A careful anamnesis, clinical, neurological and laboratory exams, including computerized tomography of the brain and the electroencephalography were conducted in order to assure that the diagnostic fundament was strictly delimited to hyperactive behavior — the main complaint presented in a11 cases. The children were studied through psychodiagnosis, in the therapeutic relationship and evaluated during the time period of six months with the Drawing-and-Story Procedure made by Walter Trinca. The results suggest that hyperactivity expresses general difficulties in childhood development that may be understood in the dynamic study of the interaction between the child, his body and his universe. In particular, it highlights the difficulties in the self-regulation of rhythms, routine and limits. The affective relationships are established on a basis of insecurity, little trust and little continence.