Dr Emmi Pikler was a Hungarian paediatrician who, in the 1940s, established a residential nursery in Budapest. She and her team developed the Pikler approach through decades of watching infants move.
What they observed – carefully and systematically – is that when infants are given the freedom to move without adult interference, they don’t just develop physically; they develop grace and agility, and they learn to see themselves as capable beings. Those sensorimotor experiences become the foundation for all subsequent learning and development.
That idea was at the heart of our second webinar in our infant and toddler pedagogy series for Storypark: Freedom to move in infant & toddler spaces. What came through in this was that our assumptions about movement are worth examining. (If you missed the first webinar of the series, you can read about it or watch the recording here).
Gross motor development is about more than milestones
When we talk about gross motor development in under-two spaces, the conversation usually revolves around milestones. For example, rolling, crawling, pulling to stand, or walking. These are the markers we track, celebrate, and share with families, and they matter. But milestones tell us when something happened. They don’t tell us much about the quality of movement, the process of getting there or what any of it offered the child.
Pikler’s research showed that when infants are allowed to develop movement in their own time and sequence, without being placed into positions they can’t reach themselves, the development goes far beyond the physical.
In her writing, Pikler described how an infant learning to roll, crawl, sit, stand, and walk is learning the movements, and also how to learn. They discover what it means to be interested, to try something, to experiment, to meet difficulty and persist through it. They come to know, as she put it, “the joy and satisfaction which is derived from this success, the result of [their] patience and persistence.”
During our webinar, we watched a video of a baby trying to roll over. The words participants reached for were striking: determined, persistent, completely child led. One educator wrote that the baby “worked really hard at what comes naturally to her and with perseverance she rolled over – because she was afforded the time and space for free movement.”
This is something milestones simply can’t measure – agency, confidence, and what it means for an infant’s developing sense of self.
What floor time offers infants and toddlers
How much time do infants in your care spend on the floor each day? Not in a bouncer, not in a high chair, or not propped to sit against a pillow – but on the floor, free to move.
Floor play on their back gives infants constant sensory feedback to the brain. It builds body awareness and self-knowledge – physically, cognitively, and emotionally – in ways that sitting in a bouncer, walker, high chair, or any other piece of equipment simply can’t. Each piece of equipment is used with good intentions, but each one contains an infant somewhere other than the floor and restricts their movement.
One participant shared her own experience, noting that many of the infants she works with cannot roll or lift themselves with a smooth motion, because the priority has been to seat them or complete tummy time rather than allowing free movement from their back. When adults place children in positions, children can get stuck, and we inadvertently take away the very opportunities that build those skills. Starting on their back, with the freedom to move, makes a difference.
The question isn’t whether any single piece of equipment is harmful. It’s cumulative. What positions are the infants in your care spending most of their day in? How much time are they on the floor, free to move? And what are they doing or not able to do as a result?
When infants have sustained, uninterrupted time on the floor in positions they have found themselves, they are doing exactly what their bodies and brains need. They are negotiating weight and space. They are building strength and coordination through natural movement sequences. They are building the physical foundation that will eventually carry them to standing, and then to walking, not because we put them there, but because their bodies found the way.
Magda Gerber, founder of RIE® and the Educaring® approach, was deeply influenced by Pikler’s work. She observed that when infants are given the chance to fall, to get back up, and to move on, they are building far more than physical skill. As she put it: “Learning to fall, getting up again, and moving on is the best preparation for life.”
How your environment shapes freedom of movement
The physical environment is one of the most powerful things we can shape as educators – and one of the things we most often take for granted.
Every furniture choice communicates something. The question isn’t how much space you have, it’s what the space invites children to do. Does the layout support movement and exploration? Do children have room to roll, crawl, climb, and make decisions? Does the furniture serve the children, or does it serve the adults?
One educator’s response at the close of the session stayed with me. She wrote that the webinar had made her realise that most of the environment and furniture in her infants’ room was very restricting. That kind of honest reflection is exactly what this work asks of us – even when it’s uncomfortable to see.
This applies outdoors as well as in. Crawling infants and toddlers need genuine physical challenges – not perfectly safe, obstacle-free spaces, but environments that ask something of their bodies. Where they have to reach, balance, climb, jump and make decisions. Where risk is present and thoughtfully managed, rather than designed out entirely.
A useful exercise is to walk through your indoor and outdoor spaces and ask: what does this environment actually invite children to do? What do the furniture choices, the layout, the materials within reach say about what we expect of the infants and toddlers who spend their days here? This can be revealing and is worth doing regularly.
Trusting infants to move
Underneath all of this is trust.
Trusting infants to move in their own time, in their own sequence. Trusting that the infant working to roll over – concentrating, trying, failing, trying again – is doing exactly what they need to be doing. They don’t need our help to get there faster. Trusting that when a toddler is working through a climbing challenge, our steadying hand before they’ve had a chance to try is not always the kindness we intend it to be.
What struck me during the session was how varied our instincts are in these moments. When asked what they would do while watching a baby work to roll over, some participants said they would observe quietly. Others said they would lie down beside the baby and narrate what they saw. Others reached for praise and encouragement. That variation tells us something – slowing down and simply watching is harder than it sounds. Our instinct is often to respond, to celebrate, to do something. But when we rush in with praise or cheering, we can inadvertently shift the child’s attention away from their own body and their own experience of getting there. Learning to sit with the observation, to trust what’s unfolding, is its own kind of practice.
None of this is straightforward. It requires us to slow down and observe – really observe – rather than manage and direct. The pace of the day, our care instincts, and family expectations can all work against this. But the difference it makes for children is worth it. One participant described a baby in a video as “empowered and completely participating in and leading her own learning.” That framing – an infant as a leader of their own learning – is what becomes possible when we trust them to lead.
Keep exploring
If you missed the session or want to revisit it with your team, the recording is now available.
If these ideas have sparked something for you, here are a few ways to keep going:
Watch the recording. The full webinar is freely available. It’s worth watching with your team and talking through what comes up. Watch here
Download Nurturing Foundations. This free ebook explores infant and toddler pedagogy in depth, with practical guidance and reflective questions you can bring back to your setting. Download here
Join the next webinar. The next session in this series – The work of play in infant and toddler spaces – is coming on Thursday 20 August Register here
A question to sit with
What could freedom of movement make possible for the infants and toddlers in your room?
Nellie Hodda is a RIE® Associate, early childhood teacher, ITANA board member, and member of the Storypark pedagogy team. She works as an independent consultant and facilitator, specialising in infant and toddler pedagogy and respectful caregiving.
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