Parents get a lot of advice about when a baby should be able to do what. The list with ages in months rarely helps – mostly it just creates pressure. Child’Space lessons are about something else: seeing what your child is working on right now, and getting out of its way, in the best sense.
Babies don’t practise, they explore
A baby who turns its head to the side is not doing an exercise. It is following a sound, a light, a face. That the neck gets stronger in the process is a by-product. That is exactly why children learn so thoroughly: they repeat voluntarily, hundreds of times, because it makes sense to them.
What parents can do is usually smaller than they think. Put your face on the side your baby finds it harder to turn to. Wait instead of helping. Allow a pause when something isn’t working yet.
Why sitting or standing a baby up often doesn’t help
A child who is sat up before it can sit up by itself does sit – but it doesn’t know how it got there. It can’t support itself, can’t get back down, can’t move on from there. The steps it skipped are missing later.
That is why in the lessons we mainly look at the transitions: from the back onto the side, from the side onto the tummy, from the tummy onto hands and knees, from sitting into crawling. These transitions are the real work.
Everyday life is the lesson
A large part of the lesson is about handling that happens every day: lifting, carrying, changing, dressing, laying down. If you pick your child up from the side rather than from the front under the arms, you give it the experience of a rotation every single time. Twenty times a day adds up to more movement experience than any special training session.
The reverse is part of it too: noticing when a child doesn’t want to be disturbed because it is in the middle of something.
And the parents?
Carrying, feeding and lifting a child is physical work, often in awkward positions. In the lessons I therefore also look at you: how you sit, how you lift, where you hold on. That is not a side issue – a back that doesn’t hurt makes many things easier.
How a lesson works
The child comes to the lesson together with a care giver. We observe together, I show ways of handling, you try them out, and we follow the child’s pace – if it is asleep or hungry, we simply do something else. A lesson lasts around 45 to 60 minutes.
Child’Space is suitable from the first weeks of life until a child walks freely.
Lessons in Rossatz
Lessons take place at Rossatz 12, in the rooms of Matsya Yoga in the old kindergarten next to the church – easy to reach from Krems, Dürnstein, Mautern and Spitz. More on the Child’Space page; appointments by arrangement at +43 699 17050606.
Child’Space is a way of learning and does not replace an examination by a paediatrician. If you are worried about your child’s development, please talk to your paediatrician first.