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Infant Developmental Movement Education

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Movement sets up patterns in the body that then support brain development. The first year of life is when many of these patterns are established. 

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"I guide caregivers to support infants within the first year of life to help their baby reach their full movement potential, because movement matters!"

 

 

​​Did you know?​

  • The body and mind are one. Integrated movement builds a healthy integrated brain. 

  • Touch is essential in our developmental process.

  • Engaging all the senses, and developing curiousity supports the infant’s movement development. 

  • Babies movement patterns are supported by being in relationship to self, others, objects (toys), and environment.

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  • Sessions are for infants and their caregiver(s). Education sessions prior to the baby being born are also an option. 

  • sessions take place in person at your home (Vancouver area) or online via zoom

  • all sessions are guided in a supportive and non-invasive manner. 

To book a session with Donna click on link.

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Donna is an Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME). She is a graduate of the Infant Developmental Movement Program with Moviemento Atlas, a Registered Body-Mind Centering® Program. To find out more about this program click on link https://movimientoatlas.com/en/idme-program/

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As an Infant Developmental Movement Educator I can:

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  • Educate parents, and caregivers, about developmental movement, working alongside them with their baby, guiding to notice and see movements that are coming into presence.

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  • Facilitate development movement patterns through touch, engagement of the senses, rhythm, play, and relationship - then guide parents how to support with touch, etc. 

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  • Support the progression of development in the first year of life from;  

    • ​support with gravity

    • to rolling

    • to coming to sit

    • to crawling

    • to kneeling

    • to standing

    • to walking!

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  • Guide caregivers to attune to their baby through bodily presence and engagement of the senses.

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  • Meet the baby where they are at, in terms of their own developmental process and rhythm.

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  • Focus on the potential of the baby and assist to invite that potential to come forward through facilitation or play. 

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  • Offer suggestions on how to create a stimulating environment through the use of toys, props, environmental sources, etc., in order to support the baby’s development. 

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  • Teach handling skills and teaching caregivers how to best support their child through positioning, weight shifting, holding, etc.  

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  • Create a supportive learning environment for infants and caregivers within the family context. 

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  • Work in relation to all involved in the infant’s care, and teach body-based relational skills.

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  • Hold space for families and caregivers, to develop attunement and curiosity skills, in regards to infant development. 

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My Journey to becoming an IDME

Above is a picture of me holding my great-nephew in my arms when he was just two weeks old. From the moment I held him in my arms I knew that I wanted to expand my movement practice to include working with babies. Holding him and witnessing him communicate through his body reminded me of the importance of noticing subtle changes of movement as a form of communication. 

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When this new bundle of joy came into our family, his Parents would say; ‘let Donna hold him, she knows how to stop him from crying’. It is not that I knew how to ‘stop’ him from crying. What I knew was to listen to what he was telling me through his whole body and I intuitively supported what he needed. I was not yet an Infant Development Movement Educator, at that time, but I was working as a Certified Movement Analyst and a Registered Movement Educator/ Therapist, so I did have some understanding of developmental movement and movement as a language.

 

Now that I am an Infant Development Movement Educator (IDME), I have come to understand developmental movement at a deeper level, through the lens of Body-Mind Centering®. I have learned skills on how to support babies through their developmental process (cognitively, kinesthetically, and sensorially) within their first year of life, and I have gained knowledge on how to educate caregivers so that they too can support their baby during this process. 

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