The Work of Emmi Pikler

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We can observe the progressive anchoring ofthe childs self within the body in the simple care-giving moments. As early as five or six weeks ofage, the child reaches out her hand and arm tohelp the parent put on a sleeve, or lifts her legs

to enable the diaper to be put on. This is more thanmere sensory response: It is a deed of the childs indi-viduality. If we notice, respond with interest, waitwith patience, the child will initiate moremoments like this, and the child will respond ineven more active collaboration. Our intimate inter-est is reciprocated, and the child becomes increas-ingly engaged in the daily substance of life. Herego becomes increasingly active, expressing itspresence in an individual, personal gesture.Piklers work makes these elements of the infantsexperience tangible and perceptible as active phe-

nomena in the integration of the ego.

From relationship into the world: thefurther integration of the childs egoMotor explorations

Pikler recognized through intimate observa-tion over many years that the childs motor devel-opment can be supportedthrough the careful role ofthe adult as step by step themotor explorations begin.The childs hands discovereach other, touch oneanother, and explore thedetail of fingers and palms.She turns her body fromprone to supine and vice versa, perhaps in imita-tion of the turning of the upright human beings inher environment. Researcher Ernst-MichaelKranich shares that when we observe these explo-rations, the ego of the child is at work in theunconscious depths of the body, where bones areformed and muscles develop. Through this work

the ego impresses its signature on the childsbody.

Here is Alice at six months. She is comfortablewith her parents, but also finds joy and fulfillmentexploring the world of space independently. We seeher lying on the carpet, relaxed and gazing about.She holds a play object in her hands, examining itvisually and then with her mouth. She bends andstretches her knees; she makes small circles of move-ment in the air with her feet and ankles. She twists

her trunkfor no externally visible reason. Now on herstomach, she taps her toes on the floor as if in responseto the activity of another child in the playroom, who istapping a toy against a hard surface. Returning to therelaxed comfort of her back, Alice now suddenly discov-

ers a hand moving before her field of vision. She opensand shuts it, much like the old traditional childrensgame of Open, shut them, open, shut them. Hergaze shifts to find her other hand, as if recognizing,This is me! The second hand moves to greet the firstone. Hands touch, each exploring the fingers of theother. The moment passes and she once again resumesa position of relaxed rest, gazing dreamily about her.Momentarily she crosses her left leg and extends it farover to the right, twisting her spine. In one cat-liketwist, Alice rights herself onto her stomach, raising andstretching her torso far above the floor in defiance of

gravity. This leads her forward into a new positionand, for the first time in this sequence, she movesintentionally towards an object a few feet away.

What is striking throughout Alices explorationof space is her freely-initiated movement, safe in theawareness that her parents are close by. At the

same time, she is not dependentupon the adults. The comfort ofeach transitional position in whichshe discovers a new sense of bal-anceon her side, back or front,and everywhere in betweenandthe physical pleasure of the move-ments themselves appear to satisfyher completely. She coos softly in

some moments, or smiles into the space around her,content with her own activity. And yet, throughout,her parents are only a few feet away.

Next, lying on her belly, the child raises herselfup above the ground, first using her arms for sup-port, then her knees, then legs, and we recognizethe change in gaze that signifies the ever-growing

consciousness that accompanies these develop-ments. Alongside this progression of movementscomes the moment in which the child sits stablyupright out of her own self-initiative, without anysupport. This frees her hands and torso, providingnew possibilities for responding to the many objectsupon which her attention focuses.

Working against gravity, she will push down toraise herself upward, perhaps grasping hold of fur-niture or other objects in the environment for sup-port. Sooner or later, the child independently finds

The possibility forself-initiated move-

ment is essential forthe egos work.

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her own individual position for standing alone,guided by her own consciousness and her bodilycapacities of balance and strength.

Evan, eight months old, arrives at his playgroup

and somehow identifies a large baby doll from faracross the room. This doll has attracted his interestbefore, but now he can crawl skillfully. Leaving behindthe circle of other babies and parents, his own includ-ed, he crawls off to meet the doll. Reaching his goal,almost, he pulls himself up on the large basket andcarefully rolls it over in order to gain access to the dollhe likes. He pulls the doll out of the basket, sits down,and explores the doll now sitting in his lap.

Where is his ego active in this moment? Evanbegan with an interest, a preference, and his confi-

dence and motor ability enabled him to pursue thatinterest.

The possibility for self-initiated movement isessential for the egos work. Through movementthe child enters the world and makes contact withit. Step by step, chaotic move-ments are refined and the babymasters the space around him bymastering his own body. Each stepof the way, it is the egos penetra-tion, its taking hold, that defineswhat is possibleholding up thehead, grasping an object, turningthe body from back to front or front to back.

The world of objects and playPlay is the expression of the egos engagement

in the world. At first, it is pure perception thatengages the child. Each step in the development ofplay illustrates the childs soul-spiritual involvementin the physical world around him in an ever morefull and complete way. As we carefully observe thechild at play, we also see the progressive unfolding

of his thinking. Many professional observers haverecognized the childs deep need to play. Within thefirst two to three months after birth, the childs fas-cination with his surroundings is inexhaustibleifthe level of stimulation is appropriately matchedwith his ability to digest his experiences. Naturally,those objects closest at hand are of greatest interestand the simpler the better, for the child can take inwhat is simple and that which is repeatedly presentfor exploration. The familiar object is comfortingly

the same and yet full of potential for new discov-eries.

He takes pleasure in touching, feeling, squeez-ing, picking up, and dropping objects within thefirst three months of life, and the list of all he does

with them could go on and on. As the child, out ofhis individuality, chooses those things to which heis drawn, we see how deeply original each childsexplorations are, for reasons we will never know.The individual initiative he takes is evidence of theself entering into bodily activity. The child whodoes not show this interest and liveliness warrantsour attention and concern.

How do we recognize the manifestation ofego presence and strengthening?

The childs approach to a new object is to

apply the skills he has gained up to that point. Ifhe finds that the new object behaves differentlyfrom familiar ones, this prompts him to try a dif-ferent approach in investigating this toy, thus get-ting to know the new possibilities it may offer. va

Kll, a colleague at the PiklerInstitute and brilliant observerof child development, gives us apowerful tool for seeing thephenomena of ego integrationin her description of the infantsplay. Through her eyes, we seesuch sophisticated interaction

with the world, such intricate manipulation ofobjects and their possibilities that we can have nodoubt that a self is actively streaming out throughthe childs organism of body, soul, and spirit.

The childs explorations continue in the sec-ond half of the first year: the fingers gain dexteri-ty and the thumb and index finger can now pickup the most minute crumb or thread from thefloor. Objects are picked up and dropped repeated-ly. And whats next? The childs research contin-

ues! The child begins to explore what effect he canhave upon objects withoutpicking them up at all!Pushing a ball, it rolls away from him. Whatpower he must feel in causing such a change in hissurroundings. Toward the conclusion of this firstyear, the child discovers that two objects haveparticular relationships with one another, andthat this is distinctive for each pair of objects.What are these relationships? What fits insidesomething? At first it is trial and error, but gradu-

Play is the expres-sion of the egosengagement in theworld.


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allyby around eighteen monthsmemory ofrelationships as well as visual examination ofobjects replace the physical trials.

The healthy child is not satisfied with a nar-row, repeated exploration of the same object in

the same manner. The inner activity of the self iswoven through with theindependent will, drawinghim outward to take hold ofthe environment. The childfeels deeply competent andcapable as the progressionof capacities is born, andthis competence breeds joyand contentment.

Play now leads to theera of collecting in its

many aspects. First, almostrandomly, the child discovers the similarities ofsome objects close by. Soon, out of some internalcriteria, he begins to collect with intention andselectivity those objects that belong with oneanother. As he aggregates more and more collec-tions, it may be that his collecting brings him intoa little collision with the world. Objects of interestto him may also be of interest to others. As thisoccurs, his soul separates itself from the worldaround him and experiences the qualities ofmine, not mine, and yours. We see the unfold-ing of the nascent feeling life, as well as the worldof language and thought. This is surely evidencefor the all-encompassing nature of play and thesophisticated layers of meaning and the egodevelopment inherent within each moment ofplay.

Language and a new step into the worldoutside the self

As soon as the human being speaks, an Iexpresses itself. The childs first syllables are the

mark of an individuality joining the world of thosewho communicate with language. Every parentlooks forward to hearing the first syllabic utter-ance that connotes actual meaning, for the parentinherently knows that the childs self is anchoredyet more deeply, that an individuality is trulypresent. Although it is not within our scope hereto bring a detailed description of the senses asRudolf Steiner has described them, nonetheless itis important to recognize that these twelve senses

underlie the integration of the incarnating childsego. When active in the adult around the child, theso-called higher senses of thought, of the Word,and of the ego stimulate the emergence of thesesame senses in the child. Without such stimulation,

the child suffers greatly. The childs general sensoryorganism works through itsdeep imitative capacity tostrengthen his senses ofthought, Word, and ego in apreliminary way. These highersenses unfold in quite a differ-ent way from the foundationalsenses of balance, movement,touch, and warmth that arisemore directly in relationship tothe physical body and activity

within it.At the Pikler Institute, the caregiver develops

her intimate relationship with each child not onlythrough her touch and the sharing and playfulnessthat occurs during caregiving times together, butalso through her voice. In a musical, natural way,the caregiver engages the child with rich, rhythmiclanguage; she speaks to the preverbal child fromearliest infancy, and he responds with his eyes, hisgestures of collaboration, his interaction.Communication arises from speech as well as fromlistening.

There is a unique inner awakening, accompa-nied by the weaving of the outer social tapestry,when speech emerges for the young child. He eitherjoins the human community ever more intimately orbegins to become progressively isolated from it.Speech brings separation from the global conscious-ness of the first year, for the child must stand out-side that which he describes. Speech provides botha powerful and vulnerable situation for the child ashe exposes his innermost sentiments to those wholisten.

A general picture of the incarnating child bringsan expectation that the steps of movement to theupright, exploration of the world through play,warm and verbal relationships with those close tothe child will all converge to invite the child to bringforth expressive language toward the end of thefirst year. For many months the child graduallyunderstands more and more of the speech he hearsaround him until his own first words burst forthfirst singly, then in pairs, and finally in full sen-


The healthy child is notsatisfied with a narrow,repeated exploration ofthe same object in thesame manner.

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tences. Naming itself sets the child in distinction tothe world around him and breaks the ties betweenthe core of the self and the outside world. The selfhas found its voice.

Saying noand yesto the worldLater in the second year, the self gradually

unites with the body and the child grows toward aunity of soul-spirit and life-filled physical body. Theevidence is dramatic. To create a space for this self,the child pushes away the world. This push literal-ly creates distance between the little one and theworld around him. To get afeeling for this experience ofthe childs, push your ownarms away from your bodyand experience the space you

have thus created. It is tangi-ble, this separation that theoutstretched arms create.There is safety and also powerin this gesture, which can befelt to be a painful moment ofdeath as the oneness, grace,innocence, and simplicity ofdaily experience give way toseparation and isolation. Itcan be an overwhelmingmoment for the child to recognize that he is nolonger one with the world around, but is himself aseparate and distinct individual.

It is simultaneously a powerful moment of rec-ognizing his ability to act upon the world. Theforceful No is the practice of this very strength.But how crucial is this passage! For without separa-tion, the egos unfolding halts. If the consciousnessof the child remains in the periphery rather thaninternally anchored, the adults around the childmay begin to sense that an important transitionhas not occurred.

Over time, this period of strong No is trans-formed into an ever more mobile relationship withthe world, in which the well-anchored self is gradu-ally more comfortable, feels adequate spacebetween the self and the world around him, andcan now begin to tolerate disappointment, bound-aries, and limitations.

Evidence of healthy ego integration:the three-year-old

Towards the end the childs third year, we rec-ognize the culmination of this initial process ofhealthy ego integration as we observe the shining

forth of the well-anchored human spirit in the fol-lowing qualities, characteristics, and capacities:

Initiative: The child is a being of initiative, withjoyful interest and engagement in the world. Newpossibilities, explorations create a lively spirit wholives in a mood of the goodness of the world.

Security and trust in the envi-ronment and in people: Thehealthy child is interested inother children, addresses

them directly, seeks theircompanionship in play. Eyecontact, touch, following andleading activity express thechilds growing satisfactionin human relationships, bothwithin the family group andbeyond it.

Fluid movement: The child hasdeveloped the ability not

only to stand upright, but also to run, climb, andjump with confidence and agility. He is confidentin trying new physical activities and in exploringnew environments, is able to take appropriaterisks and recover independently from the smallbumps in his encounters with daily life.

Self-care: The child has now taken on elements ofbodily care independently, such as dressing, eat-ing and toileting, with a joy of mastery and com-petence. (Interestingly, research from the PiklerInstitute finds that the single correlation with

completion of the development of toileting skills isthe full emergence of the childs speaking of her-self as I.)

Play: The childs ability to play, both alone andwith others, is now well developed. She has thecapacity to express creativity in the use of physi-cal objects (no longer object exploration alone)


Susan Weber 23

For as long as the child isprotected by heavenly

forces, we have theopportunity to comple-ment these forces withour own earthly gentle-ness and protection, withour joyful invitation forthe child to enter life.


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Endnotes

1. Kathleen Raine, taken from Emmi Piklers medicaljournal.2. Ernst-Michael Kranich, Research Bulletin, 2007.3. Ibid.

ReferencesKll, va and Gyrgyi Balog. The Origins of Free Play,

Budapest: Pikler-Lczy Trsasg, 2005.

Kranich, Ernst-Michael. Human Development andMoral Force in Research Bulletin, Autumn 2007.

Lievegoed, Bernard. Phases of Childhood, Edinburgh:Anthroposophic Press, 1987.

Raine, Kathleen. Spheres. In Pikler, medical journal.

Steiner, Rudolf. Education in the Light of SpiritualScience, in The Education of the Child, Hudson, NY:Anthroposophic Press, 1996.

___________. Spiritual Guidance of the Individual andHumanity, Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1992.

Weber, Susan. A Warm and Gentle Welcome, SpringValley, NY: WECAN Publications, 2008.

cannot be underestimated. For as long as the childis protected by heavenly forces, we have the oppor-tunity to complement these forces with our ownearthly gentleness and protection, with our joyfulinvitation for the child to enter life.

At a time when we are told of increasing alien-ation of parent from child, of parents uncomfort-able touching their own children, it becomes mostimportant for each of us to stand knowledgeablybehind the process of the incarnation of the childthrough the integration of the ego. We can, in fact,school ourselves to recognize the discrete steps andto enhance an environment that best stimulatestheir emergence. In this way we stand behind theirimportance in enabling the incarnating soul to pre-pare for the drama of her adult life.

Rudolf Steiner describes how an aura hovers

around the young child like a wonderful human-superhuman power. This aura, which is actually ourhigher nature, extends everywhere into the spiritualworld. But at the earliest moment we can remem-ber, this aura penetrates more deeply into our innerbeing. We can experience ourselves as a coherent Ifrom this point on because what had previouslybeen connected to the higher worlds has nowentered the I. Thereafter, our consciousness estab-lishes its own relationship to the outer world.

Spiritual forces are present during the firstthree years of human life that are never again avail-able in the same way for the rest of a human life-time. The child is unaware of these forcesinsofaras memory does not allow them to enter into thechilds consciousness. In this way the child is left todevelop in freedom. These life-sustaining forcesacting from without, from above and beyondarethe most powerful and profound forces in the cos-mos. They have the possibility to serve as tremen-dous inspirations and support to those who accom-pany the child at this time of his life. We can stepboth back in wonder and reverence and also for-

ward with attentiveness and engagement to wit-ness all that unfolds before us.

It is extraordinarily interesting to watch achild learning to walk. You must learn toobserve this. This is the first thing to lookfor in a child; for how a child moves revealsthe most inward urge of life, the primal lifeimpulse.

Rudolf Steiner,Human Values in Education


Susan Weber 25

Emmi Pikler


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presents the work of Sophias Hearth as well as

themes relating to the very young child, at local,

national, and international conferences.

Susan completed her undergraduate work at

Vassar College and received a master's degree in edu-

cation from the University of Pennsylvania where hermajor field of study was the teaching of reading

throughout the curriculum, including remedial read-

ing. She earned a certificate in Waldorf education at

Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene. She

has completed a RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers)

Level I training in Los Angeles, and completed an

English language study course at the Pikler Institute

in Budapest, Hungary, in June 2005.

Susan Weber brings many years of personalwork as a mother and professional working with chil-

dren and families as a public school teacher and

administrator, a Waldorf early childhood teacher, a

Waldorf early childhood teacher training coordinator

at Antioch New England Graduate School, and anadult educator. She represents North America on the

Working Group for the Very Young Child, a function

of the International Waldorf Kindergarten

Association.

She teaches Sophias Hearth Joyful Beginnings

Parent Infant classes and shares her experience with

various topics at our speaker series. She regularly

26 The Work of Emmi Pickler

People have enough to live, but nothing to live

for; they have the means, but no meaning.

Robert Fogul, Nobel Laureate economist

These words echo those of Viktor Frankl written a

half-century earlier. I know that I have been on asearch for meaning and perhaps you have been as

well. This search caused me to quit a successful litiga-

tion career so that I could become, in Maslows terms,

one with the work that I do. Where is the mean-

ing in the work that your company does every day?

Whether it is manufacturing widgets, selling insur-

ance coverage, or a retail operation, any real hope at

finding meaning comes from service.... The greatest

meaning of all comes from our relationships: the rela-

tionships that we have with our work individually,

the relationships that we have with our co-workers

and the relationships that we have with our cus-

tomers and clients.

Daniel Pink

The Work of Emmi Pikler

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