Satu Palokangas

What is Infant developmental movement Education?

As an Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME) I help to create and hold a supportive space for babies in their first year of life, from birth to walking.

I also work with expectant parents to assist them in connecting with their child pre-birth, to prepare for labor and the transition of becoming new parents.

As an IDME I work both in group and private sessions, teaching caregivers about safe handling and how to support their child’s development - while utilizing hands-on facilitation and play to encourage each baby’s unique process of movement learning.

Part of our IDME work is also to educate caregivers to witness, appreciate and interpret the learning process that their child is immersed in. As an IDME I wish to support the unfolding potential of each child, but also the ease and comfort of each caregiver. This work can support the ongoing parent-child relationship for the many decades to come!

IDME work is based on the principles from Body-Mind Centering® an integrated and embodied approach to body, movement and consciousness.

our values as infant developmental movement educators:

As educators our task is to ignite curiosity - to hold space for learning - and to guide babies and their caregivers into deeper discoveries about themselves and their relationship with the world.

The first year of life is a potent time of learning. The way we are handled - can facilitate and support our perceptual and movement development. Gross-motor development, those early whole body actions such as rolling, crawling, creeping and walking - underlie and support our fine-motor skills and hand-to-eye coordination that emerge later.

How we are communicated with, through the tone of touch, the prosody of our caregiver’s voice including the surroundings we are embraced in, stimulate the developing nervous systems, igniting possibilities and further potentials for our own emerging communication skills.