How many times do you hear? Is she/he potty trained yet? walking yet? talking yet? writing yet? reading yet?….it goes on.
I will often say, you have to be a warrior to parent the way you believe, to stand up to these pressures and comparisons, especially in our hurried culture of “earlier is better”. The clear choice for me is simple, LET YOUR CHILD LEAD. This philosophy builds connection and trust, bypasses any unnecessary trauma and also has physiological benefits. It starts in infancy.
Feldenkrais and PIkler led the way in the natural movement in the 1930s. Feldenkrais taught that “self-awareness of functional movement leads to increased function.” Which means that if you can observe and trust your baby to roll, crawl, sit and walk when ready, they will move with more self-awareness.
Dr Pikler believed that babies should not be sat up before they were ready to move into a sitting position on their own and not walked by having their hands held but should be allowed to learn to walk at their own pace. Your baby is in tune with when each set of muscles and bones are ready and when they have mastered balance ready for the next new manoeuvre. It is said in Budapest that “Pikler babies” can be recognised even when they are older because they move with more grace and freedom.
I would suggest lying your baby down on a baby proofed area, uninterrupted and observe. Allowing them freedom of movement to explore their own body and learn independently.
Our long-term goal is to safeguard their self-directed learning and self-motivation and for this, we need to move from being teachers to being observers. These beautiful videos demonstrate this beautifully https://buff.ly/2ljCA9V &https://buff.ly/2ljCC1x (shared with kind permission of Irene Lyon of https://buff.ly/2M6RKe).
Please, as always, let me know how you get on.
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