Kids. IDME

The IDME approach

click here to see a video on Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME),

produced by Raquel Fonfría for www.movimientoatlas.com

Below you will find the following themes:

The IDME approach - Infant Developmental Movement Education

INA Kindergarten - a documentation in pictures and words

IDME Certification Programs

The IDME approach - Infant Developmental Movement Education

Children are different. Also in their readiness to move and to try out something new. Therefore, depending on their personality and character, they might not go through all the essential movement patterns.

The “Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME)" approach wants to provide the optimal conditions for all children to learn these movement patterns playfully. Because the first years of life are decisive for the further development, especially for the brain: this is the time to form the basic patterns of movement, the informational organization and the perception of self and the world.

The playful facilitation of this early child development can largely expand the physical, emotional and intellectual abilities of each child. It helps with the integration of primitive reflexes into efficient movement patterns. The children become more skilful in processing the huge amount of sensory information.

My work with the children:

This approach can be supportive at any moment – we can start right after birth!

We can give the infants a feeling of safety and enhance their sense of orientation early on by laying them down on the sides first before rolling them onto the back.

We can support finding body symmetry by sensitizing the hands and feet towards midline. This will also have positive effects on sleep and digestion.

We can facilitate the later creeping and crawling by stimulating individual body parts and sense organs. This will lead to an optimal networking of the two halves of the brain.

We can give a clear sense of equilibrium by motivating the child to walk, run, balance, climb, jump, roll and fall. This will transmit a feeling of securely standing in this world and at the same time will train the ability to fearlessly let go.

Balls, mats, benches or a climbing wall will challenge the children according to their age and thus give them more motivation. The use of further elements like sponges, scarves or feathers trains their perception and focus. Physical contact with others mirrors and modulates their own muscular and overall tone. Music and rhythm help to tune into and evoke different moods.

This approach can be applied to individuals and groups, with and without the parents participating. It is especially efficient and enduring when the parents are involved: They know their child best and can provide precious information. In order to enable them to carry the process beyond the IDME sessions, I will transmit the background of my work in verbal explanations and examples of touch and movement.

Education

As an IDME practitioner I also educate parents, caretakers and other professionals interested in childcare on the importance of movement development in the first years of life. In workshops, lectures or individual counselling I give information on questions such as:

· Which progression in movement and speech development will appear in the respective age period?

· Which reflexes, righting reactions and equilibrium responses will appear and be integrated at what age?

· Which individual transitions does this very child find between the “milestones” of rolling, sitting, standing and walking?

· How can we learn to discover and appreciate this uniqueness in transitioning?

· How can we facilitate a full range of movement and expression and thus expand the child’s choices?

· How to avoid or ameliorate (later) difficulties like hyperactivity, psychomotoric or learning disabilities?

Our main focus

will never be on possible difficulties,

but on our willingness

to acknowledge the unique nature of each child,

to awaken her/his special interest

and use it as a motivation for growth and development.

INA Kindergarten, Photo documentation 2006

Below you will see a photo documentation of my work at the Berlin INA-Kindergarten (Markgrafenstr.), where I weekly taught two groups of children between 10 months and 3 years. The documentation shows moments and situations from different classes with the “big ones” from this age group:

Fun with sensing, perception and movement

On the ball

Once you can let your weight sink trustingly into the ball, and once you know where your hands are, your feet, your head and bun: then you can take off and fly.

Merry-mat-go-round

A sense of balance and a sense of group. Walburga keeps turning the mat: Who can stand upright? Shanieka is running along and all the passengers tumble. And then the kids want to make Walburga turn – but she is muuuuuuch too heavy! That’s why everybody has to help!

Measuring your strength

Good to know how strong you are actually – that is fun and a good preparation for roping down the climbing-wall. And good, too, to have friends that come to help you!

The climbing wall

In climbing you also use the strength of your arms: can they hold the body’s weight? And when the cloth yields and wobbles while you’re roping down?

The giant wheel

Sometimes the wheel stands still, sometimes it rolls and bounces. Who is on top? Who is below? Could we reach out and hold each others hands while moving?

The long bench

On the bench you can try out and invent things: Seymen bear-walks backwards, Ensar flies from the unfamiliarly rocking bench, Rebecca courageously jumps and falls backwards. But you also learn to be cautious and precise: Celine knows to land exactly and safely on the little carpet mark. Neslisah has just landed in a stable stand backwards, and we all learn: Where is the best take-off when jumping backwards?

Resting

So important to take our individual time for resting! Everyone the way they need it and according to their own rhythm. Whether fully rolled in or leisurely stretched out, whether all by themselves or with many others around…

Blanket monsters

Well, strange: It is all quiet? Where are they all?
Hoo! There they are again: Big and loud!

Certification Programs in

Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME)

I am currently directing two of the international licensed IDME Certification Programs - in Bratislava, Slovakia, and in Zaragoza, Spain.

These Body-Mind Centering^® (BMC^®) Programs have been developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and consist of the four BMC^® Developmental courses and the finalizing two IDME modules:

4 Developmental courses

Senses & Perception
Basic Neurocellular Patterns
Reflexes, Righting Reactions and Equilibrium Responses

Ontogenetic Development

2 IDME modules

Course IDME 1: Informed observation of infants in their stages of development

Course IDME 2: Approaches to gently facilitating the development of movement & perception

All the developmental courses provide experiential growth also for dancers, body workers, medical professionals and other people, who are not necessarily interested in working with children. These courses can be taken individually and combined with courses of other accredited BMC^® programs. Together with the Skeletal and Organ Courses they fulfil the requirements of the 1^st year of the BMC^® Somatic Movement Education (SME) program.

The completion of all the six above listed courses and their requirements leads to the title of Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME). The certificate is issued by The School for Body-Mind Centering^®, based in California, USA.

For a more detailed description of the different courses, you may also see
www.bodymindcentering.com

Registration and further Information

For Spain:

Organisation: Movimiento Atlas (Patricia Gracia)

movimientoatlas@hotmail.com

*34 637 735 565

www.movimientoatlas.com

For Argentina:

Organisation: CIEC (Silvia Mamana)

integracionsomatica@gmail.com

FB: Integración Somática CIEC

+54 11 6591 9621