Pikler UK organise Basic Level Pikler Trainings in the UK in cooperation with the Pikler House, Budapest. For details of how to become a Pikler pedagogue and what is required, please see THIS PAGE on the Pikler House website.

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BUDAPEST COURSES DELIVERED IN LONDON


Next Course

Self-Initiated Motor Development

28th October to 1st November 2024

Linden Children’s Centre, London

Fee Now Frozen - £650

The most well-known ideas of the early childhood pedagogical principles of Emmi Pikler are probably those about the infant’s self-initiated motor development. Her research and writings about the significance of free movement, its practical implementation and the necessary conditions are widespread and popular.

Dr. Emmi Pikler’s observations about the free movement of the infant open a new perspective in understanding not only the principles of motor development, but also its influence on the development of the young child’s personality.

Participants of the seminar can explore the innate, natural process of motor development, which can only be observed if we do not directly intervene in movement. Besides healthy motor development we also discuss slow development, gross motor equipment and the appropriate environment to support free movement.

Course outline

  • The significance of the transitional positions and movements 

  • Research conducted in the Pikler® Institute 

  • Why is it difficult for adults to accept the idea of free movement? 

  • How does free movement alter the adult’s attitude, and how does the quality of life of the infant change?

This course is one of three basic level Pikler® trainings designed for those who would like to acquire knowledge and be informed about the Pikler® approach. Participants will deepen their understanding about early childhood education through studying our most important pedagogical principles, learning about everyday experiences with children, and also through hearing about the results of research carried out by the Pikler® Institute.

The topics will be elaborated by presenting core materials of the Pikler® Institute and the Pikler® Daycare. The results of research and practical experience, the opportunity to watch and analyse photos and video footage, accounts of personal practice and discussion of the questions raised by participants will all be included. The course will be presented two leading Hungarian Pikler Pedagogues and Caregivers – Eszter Mózes and Judit Hafner - assisted by Alex Kajtar, interpreter.

"I am a clinical child psychologist, and I have worked mostly with the early years of life: with infancy and early childhood. I have been working at the Pikler House since 1988. Since 1999 I have also been working at Early Intervention Centre Budapest, where I did the diagnosing of young children with irregular development in a multidisciplinary team, especially focusing on autism spectrum disorder, for 18 years."

Eszter says that life is about movement.

In a seminar she said, 'the natural birthing process creates an intense experience of the bounds of the body. Then, when a child first moves in the world, they perceive that they are able to act. When they realise they have an influence on what happens, they begin to understand their place in the world. Physical self-knowledge begins at the head and moves out to the limbs – arms first and then legs. Our image of our physical self – knowing where each bit of us begins and ends – is the result of a lot of work. Over time, the child realises that they are the author of their own movement.’

Judit (Jutka) Hafner began working at the Pikler® Institute in the summer of 1985. After 7 years as a caregiver, she went on to work in a state daycare centre before having her own children. She benefited greatly from her earlier experience at the Pikler® Institute as a mother. Following the maternity leave, she worked at the National Methodological Institute for Daycare Centres for a few years, before coming back to the Pikler® House in 2006 to become one of the first caregivers in the newly established Pikler® Daycare Centre. She is the lead caregiver of one of the three groups as well as a lecturer at the Pikler® courses.

To find out what training is available elsewhere, please go to pikler.hu or pikler.org.