Handling Practices: Some Historical Context
We’d like to share a bit of context and history about our handling suggestions. Where did they come from? The short answer is that we didn’t make them up! There’s history behind them, though we do like to think we’ve honed, curated and elaborated upon them over the years.
Developmental Movement: On Track or Behind?
A good part of our work at Babies Project involves talking about developmental movement— what it is and why it's important. The topic comes up in our discussions with parents and caregivers who bring their babies to Babies Project, often with questions like these:
“Is my baby on track?"
"Are they behind?"
"Should we be concerned?”
About Amy and Sarah
Read the bios for Amy Matthews and Sarah Barnaby, co-founders and directors of Babies Project.
Our Principles
Read about our principles and beliefs, which start with:
Babies come in as whole people, not as blank slates.
Our Values (the long form)
At Babies Project, the principles we teach, play, facilitate, explore and live from arise from our core values of agency, comfort, curiosity and movement. We believe these values are embedded in developmental movement, and they can guide us to be more responsible, resilient, interdependent, self-regulating and relational.
Developmental Movement for Babies & Toddlers: A Body-Mind Centering® Approach
The study of developmental movement is the study of how we learn to move in our first years of life. In Body-Mind Centering®, we specifically study the basic movement patterns, reflexive pathways and integration of our senses, as well as the progressive layering of rhythms, experiences and relationships that help an infant find a sense of self, integration and ease.
About Infant Developmental Movement Education (IDME)
All of our classes for caregivers and their babies are taught by IDMEs (Infant Developmental Movement Educators) who have been trained and certified by the School for Body-Mind Centering, and are Professional Members of the Body-Mind Centering® Association.
IDME training includes four core developmental movement courses in addition to two 10-day modules focused on working with infants. This training takes place over several years and includes over 500 hours of course work, observations and sessions.
Babies - Guidelines for Observers
We welcomed observers to participate in our by-donation Babies! sessions when we had our space in Manhattan. These guidelines were sent to observers before their first visit.
Toddlers - Guidelines for Caregivers
We developed these guidelines as a way to help orient families to our approach and our space. They were sent to caregivers before their first visit to our weekly Toddlers session when we had our space in Manhattan (2017-2023).
Babies - Guidelines for Caregivers
We developed these guidelines as a way to help orient families to our approach and our space. They were sent to caregivers before their first visit to our by-donation Babies! sessions in our space in Manhattan (2017-2023).