Two babies, two paces: Learning to respect baby’s time by Graziela Kunsch

What happens when adults do not intervene in the motor development of young children? Will they learn to crawl, sit, and walk on their own? A century ago, the Hungarian pediatrician Emmi Pikler asked herself these questions. Her practice with her family, with families she assisted as a doctor, and later in the residential nursery she ran for 40 years, demonstrates that babies are capable of developing motor skills on their own, given time and a safe and affective environment.

At Two babies, two paces: Learning to respect baby’s time, Patricia Lima Zahn and lumbung artist Graziela Kunsch, two mothers and educators living in different countries, who have both been inspired by Pikler’s pedagogical approach, show photographs and video documentation they have made of their daughters’ motor development. Manu (now two and a half years old) and Victoria (now one year old) have, since the very beginning of their lifes, had the opportunity to move freely at their own pace, achieving motor skills at different times. Their mothers share what they have observed, experienced and learned.

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