From birth, the child is an active being, interested in himself and in the world around him and capable of taking initiatives. To us adults the task of offering him the time and the possibilities to be in all respects not subject but interlocutor subject in the context of the educational relationship
The movement represents for the child much more than a functional pleasure: it is a need, one vital needs. Through the possibility of moving freely the baby acquires awareness of himself and his body – who learns to master – and can know and orient himself in the environment. As Maria Montessori teaches us, moreover, Motor and thought development are intimately connected and mutually employees: Without one, the other cannot exist, and a child who cannot exercise his movements remains deprived of the possibility of making other important achievements. But how does the construction of this complex and extraordinary faculty happen in the human being? What are the factors that facilitate the child in the gradual conquest of the movements and which, on the other hand, the conditions that risk hindering this development?
The role of the adult
Starting from the first half of the twentieth century, the Hungarian pediatrician Emmi Pikler has undertaken pioneering research whose results are now confirmed by the most recent neuroscientific studies on motor development. In charge of the Hungarian Ministry of Health in 1946 to direct the institute of methodology of education and the care of early childhood, a welcoming place for children from 0 to 3 years orphans of war, Pikler had the opportunity to conduct scientific and punctual analyzes of childhood motor development in conditions of freedom, reaching a definition of an absolutely revolutionary educational paradigm for the time (and to a great extent). His observations led to a clear conclusion: the direct intervention of the adult in the early stages of motor development – For example, sit or standing the child, or walk – does not represent a preliminary condition for the acquisition of these skills. If placed in a safe and proportionate physical environment and in the condition of being able to count on a relationship of trust with his own reference figures (parents or those who take care of him), the child is perfectly able, with his time, to build the entire range of postures and movements, gradually passing from the horizontal to the vertical position, without any need for external interventions.
Instead of replacing the child by interfering in his development, the adult should worry about building a significant emotional relationship with him and marked to respect and trust in his possibilities. The care of the environment is also central, which must allow the child to be active and to act serenely, feeling at ease and in complete safety. Particular attention, for example, will be aimed at clothing: rather than passively adapting to the dictates of childhood fashion, we prefer garments that hinders movements as little as possible, leaving freedom of motion to the head, neck, arms and trunk. In general, in the period in which they are awake, and according to time, it is advisable that children only wear the necessary tight.
Swivel and restraint tools
Another central point of the Piklerian educational proposal is the total refusal of any containment tool, such as the notorious swivel. It is true that the child gets used to it almost immediately, giving an impression of well -being, but in reality many recent research shows that such supports involve a series of disadvantages for motor development. In fact, they prevent them from easily moving the head and often also limit the movement of the legs. The swivel, if used in the first months of life, forces the child to stay straight at a time when the musculature of his back is still immature; Consequently, the trend will be to “fall affected”. In addition to preventing a correct musculature training, the swivel also interferes with the development of balance, the pace (the child accustomed to the swivel often tends to walk on tiptoe, to the disadvantage of the ability to maintain balance in a upright position) and the “ability to fall” (the walker disturbs in fact the development and maturation of the “parachute reactions”).
Although its negative effects on development are widely documented and its use has even been made illegal in some countries (for example in Canada), the swivel is unfortunately still widespread. When the child is awake, therefore, the best choice is to put him in a supine position on a sufficiently hard surface, which will allow him to move in total freedom without constraints. Starting from this position he will be himself, once the neuromuscular system has matured, to get busy to take new postures (turn on the side, roll, get on the belly down and do some “exercise” of Tummy Time).
A new look at the child
It is not true, therefore, that the main feature of the infant is the inactivity, and it is not necessary that it is the adult who puts him in a certain position or to incite him to perform a movement that the baby has not yet realized his initiative: “turn the child on the belly, sit it or stand, make him walk, with any pretext – thus forcing him to keep in these positions with little loose, with a muscle balance, Keeping him in part or totally immobilized and thus preventing him from reaching forms of movement increasingly actively elaborate, to his autonomous initiative, with his attempts, with the skilled exercise of numerous intermediate movements, with a good coordination and a fair balance, feeling only that movement for which he feels more safe – this practice, we said, not only does not favor the development of the child, but is indeed harmful to him ” For free growth, Of Emmi Pikler).
A prospect of this kind requires the adult a profound work on itself, aimed at unhingeing the belief (still deeply rooted on a cultural level) according to which, without its help, it is not possible for the child to progress in development. It is clear, explains Pikler, that the few days, a few months (see our articles on the 4 -month finish and on the 7 -month finish) or a few years is totally dependent on others as regards its survival, but It is essential that even in this condition of dependence we adults lavish to make sure that he can be the protagonist of his own path of growth and his own educational situation.
The idea of the past is now overcome according to which the advertisement would be a mostly inert being, unable to build significant relationships with the outside world: however small, the child is from birth an active being, interested in himself and the world that surrounds him and capable of taking initiatives. It is up to us adults, therefore, to offer him the time and the possibilities to be in all respects not object but interlocutor as part of the educational report.
