Dr. Pikler’s talents as a scientific investigator and a practitioner involved in the most minute details of the everyday care of infants make her sound approach both practical and believable.
– Magda Gerber (Educarer and founder of RIE)
Charting a lively day in a fictitious childcare setting, this book brings to life the approach to guiding children’s early development by Emmi Pikler, Hungarian paediatrician and educator. It’s an approach that is grounded in a deep sense of respect for infants and toddlers.
The first part of the book follows in detail the day of the eight children, aged 5 to 24 months, who attend the daycare. As we get to know the children, their parents and the carers, a variety of situations unfold and we learn more about how Emmi Pikler’s approach is applied in practice.
While witnessing the children’s experiences, we gain insights into their cognitive, social and motor development. Concepts such as autonomy, interaction, attachment, self-regulation, socialisation and self-confidence become concrete and evident. And the carers’ ways of communicating with the children and dealing with specific situations can serve as inspiration and instruction for childcare professionals and parents alike.
The second part of the book provides a theoretical perspective on the described events. It offers an in-depth exploration of themes including settling in at daycare, stages of motor development, meaningful cooperation between carers and children, and development of play.
ISBN: 979 88 7959 773 8
The narrative structure and the many practical examples in this book bring to life the pedagogy that Emmi Pikler and her staff developed over many years. I am confident that not just experts in the field, but many parents, too, will read it with interest and pleasure.
– Anna Tardos, child psychologist and former president of the Hungarian Pikler Lóczy Association
Review
By Ilse Davids, published June 2020 in Professional daycare magazine Vroeg
By Clare Caro, The Pikler Collection, UK
By Dr. Maria Cooper, ECE academic, University of Auckland, New Zealand
By Jana To, Educational Psychologist, Ministry of Education, New Zealand
By Anya Dunham, PhD, researcher and author, British Columbia, Canada
About the author
As a young mother, Hedie Meyling was touched by Emmi Pikler’s view of the child, in which autonomy, trust and respect are central. Because of this, her career as an actress and Feldenkrais practitioner took an unexpected turn. In 1999, Meyling founded the Emmi Pikler Foundation Netherlands, and it became her mission to further spread the richness of the Pikler vision in her country. She trained in Budapest, Munich and Berlin and she’s part of the teachers’ group of the Pikler® Verband Europe.
In addition, she’s also an Infant Mental Health Specialist and Experiential Family Therapist working according to the approach by Jesper Juul.
She enjoys guiding parents and children and assisting them to both intensify and simplify their parenting tasks. Furthermore, she’s an enthusiastic teacher of the Pikler® pedagogue training programme in the Netherlands.
In this book, her creative and pedagogical qualities are united.
Pikler in de praktijk 