Agency, Relationship, & "You're OK"
Our topic here is agency and relationship. A baby's development is a relational process. A baby and their primary caregiver(s) are affected by and in turn affect each other. They respond to each other, they co-create their relationship, and they exist within layers and networks of other relationships.
Agency & Emergence
We believe that emergence and agency go together. As we define it, agency is the ability to make choices, to have an impact, and learn from experience. And emergence implies self-creation, arising from within a complex non-linear relationship with the environment.
About Babies Project: Our Story
This post was written in 2018 and describes how Babies Project started.
Sarah Barnaby and Amy Matthews created Babies Project in 2017 as a partnership in offering developmental movement to babies and adults.
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.
About Body-Mind Centering®
Body-Mind Centering® is an integrated and embodied approach to movement, the body and consciousness. Developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, it is an experiential study based on the embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical and developmental principles, utilizing movement, touch, voice and mind. Its uniqueness lies in the specificity with which each of the body systems can be personally embodied and integrated, the fundamental groundwork of developmental repatterning, and the utilization of a body-based language to describe movement and body-mind relationships.
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).