He told us about itto the psychologist Alberto Soler in his presentation in which he reflected on the autonomy. Emmi Pikler was a Vienna-born pediatrician who practiced in Budapest in the 1930s. She believed in the importance of the child being as autonomous as possible and thought that it was important to leave them free to resolve situations on their own. In 1946 he became director of the Lóczy nursery, where he cared for numerous children deprived of their parents and where he defended the importance of the child discovering the world for himself and feel competent and capable of making decisions. As his daughter Anna Tardos points out, “Emmi Pikler showed that it is possible avoid the harm of institutionalization applying what he had learned in experiences with normal families & rdquor ;.
Before taking charge of that nursery, her daughter tells us that she was a well-known pediatrician in Budapest. The children he cared for (from more than 100 families) were sick less. But for this pediatrician, the fundamental thing was to promote a healthy physical and mental development and not so much to cure diseases. What was it to Pickler a healthy baby? An active, competent and calm baby, who lives in peace with his environment and with himself. And to promote the mental and physical health of children, he guided families until they offered him, in 1946, to take charge of the nursery.
Three principles of Emmi Pikler’s philosophy
1.Complete freedom of movement
That is why, says her daughter, “she removed all the equipment that encouraged the passivity of babies, such as seats or walkers & rdquor ;. Thus, says her daughter, “she taught how a small child, moved by his own initiative, is capable of being active, moving continuously, to explore. Parents were encouraged to respect their children’s need for space and their own pace: “Each milestone of motor development is reached by the baby’s own initiative as a result of their own efforts & rdquor ;.
2.Importance of respectful care
The second is the importance of respectful care in the relationship between the child and the responsible adult. He created, his daughter tells us, “a culture of ways of touching, of holding the baby, of paying attention to him, of responding to his signals”.
3.The importance of the environment
The third and most difficult was that he showed that the harm of growing up in an institution could be avoided if principles of favoring autonomy and loving care were put in place. “He managed to create, in the context of an institution, a facilitating environment that made it possible for babies to grow up as healthy, active, exploring children, with self-confidence and trust in adults and a feeling of belonging & rdquor ;.
Some reflections of Emmi Pickler
- “Trying to teach a child something that they can learn on their own is not just useless. It is also harmful.”
- “If we paid more attention to the signals and initiatives of children, supporting their feeling of ability and competence, we could raise calmer children with fewer problems, children who would know more precisely what interests them and what they need. They could play more autonomously. They would have a good relationship with their mothers and other adults, a positive human relationship that begins with mutual adjustment. With this type of relationship as a basis, the child’s adaptation to society would be a healthy process with less conflict. The emotional life would be richer and more balanced and the social adjustment more satisfying. All this would eliminate the need for many corrective educational measures and make somatic intervention unnecessary & rdquor;
- “When a child acts on their own initiative and interest, they acquire much stronger skills and knowledge than when we try to teach them”
- “It is essential that the child discovers for himself. If we help him to solve all his tasks, we take away the most important thing for his mental development. The child who achieves something through autonomous experiments acquires knowledge completely different from that acquired by a child who is previously offered a solution & rdquor ;.
- “Prudence and self-confidence develop if we allow children to gradually carry out tasks without us interfering with them & rdquor ;.
- “If the child is in a high chair, he cannot play on his own. If something falls out, he can’t catch it and has to rely on the mother to rescue it. You have to ask for help instead of learning how to solve a problem. A limited or confined child will become a passive or angry child & rdquor ;.