Freedom of Movement

11/04/2013

Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.
Marian Wright Edelman

In Respect: A Practitioner's Guide to Calm & Nurturing Infant Care and Education, Toni Christie from New Zealand observes...

"Free movement means allowing children time and space to move and develop at a natural pace and can be summed up with Magda Gerber's caveat, 'Never put a baby into a position she cannot get into or out of all by herself.' Emmi Pikler initiated the practice of free movement. Pikler's seminal research, conducted over many years at Loczy residential nursery, showed that typically developing infants (in the orphanage) did not need to be taught how to crawl, sit, stand, or walk.

"Pikler, and those who have adopted her philosophy, believe that infants must experience all movement for themselves, in their own space and in their own time. Propping an infant to sit, for example, is not allowing him free movement, nor is restricting a child's movement by placing him in a high chair, jolly jumper, walker trainer, or similar movement-restricting device. The adults' role in all of this is simply to observe and not to interfere."

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