Interview with Ilci Miranda Aulicino, psychomotricity specialist
Ilci Miranda Aulicinoisa physical educator and osychomotor therapist specializing in early childhood. For 25 years, she has been working for the global development of babies through the science of psychomotricity. We are very honored to have her join us in our baby.Living, project by be.Living entirely focused on babies. Ilci competently and fondly conducts the “Vivência em Movimento” [Living Movement] workshop. We talked to her to hear a little more about the importance of this kind of experience to improve the development of children:
b.L: What is the “Vivência em Movimento” project and how is it conducted in practice?
Ilci: Our experiences are carried out through playful activities aimed at the full development of babies. They take place in a entertaining environment with materials such as balls, foams, and pool nooddles, so that we are able to broadly stimulate the children and their bodies. Such activities are designed to prompt the children to interact with the environment, with the people and the objects around them, in a way that optimizes the abilities expected from them, considering their age groups.
b.L: Are there a specific activities for each age group?
Ilci: Yes, there are. We, human beings, develop as follows: in order to start a a next phase in life, we must have received stimulation during the previous phase. There are specific goals for each phase of a baby’s life – 0 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, 12 to 18 months. Vivência em Movimento prompts babies, through their bodies, to mature the skills that are necessary for their proper development, always looking at an integral and global development as per their age groups.
b.L: How important is it to start a work like this as a baby?
Ilci: José Saramago very interestingly says: “The man I am is the child I was”. And that’s very true. More and more, mainly due to technology, knowledge on the importance of early childhood – that is, a child’s first six years of life – is increasingly widespread. This is a key period for the establishment of several skills. So much so that it is called “a child’s golden years”. In practice, this means that, with the right stimuli in early childhood – especially the first two years, which is the most important stage in the development of neural plasticity – many aspects of a child’s development and of the future adult he or she will become can be positively determined. All these experiences will impact on learning, behavior and skill development. This is why we say these windows of opportunities cannot be missed. In the first years of life, the baby’s brain has a large neuroplasticity and neural connections (synapses). These intensely occur from zero to 2 years and from 2 to 3 years. From then on, they start to decrease. So, in this age range, we open several pathways within our brain that will help our future development. That is why the the importance of the first three years in a child’s life must be stressed. I recommend the book “Mil primeiros dias da criança” [A Child’s First Thousand Days], which addresses how releevant this age range is for the developmentof the child, adolescent and later adult.
b.L: How can the baby.Living experience impact a child’s development?
Ilci: With all this open neuroplasticity for learning, babies perceive the world and their experiences in their own different way. baby.Living makes it possible for them to experience emotions, sensations, motor control, knowledge, sociability – situations that a child who is left alone at home or only in the company of an adult will not have or will have to a limited extent. baby.Living features this special perspective on babies, opening up the possibility to optimize body exploration skills that we often can’t, as as family, stimulate on our own, due to lack an adequate space or proper knowledge. We, thus, end up limiting such neurological development. This first phase is called psychomotor foundation development. Based on the developments of these first two or three years of life, a solid foundation will be built, which will enable to refine skills and help to form what we call a very intelligent being. It should be pointed out that intelligence is not just doing well in school. Intelligence also manifests itself in a sound child, with well-developed motor, social-emotional, and language skills.
b.L: Babies always perform the activities in the company of an adult with whom they have an emotional bond. What is the adult’s role in this context?
Ilci: Within the context of the project, adults are mediators for the babies’ development. They assume a supporting role, especially emotionally, as they are the adult figures that the babies trust, with whom they live, with whom they have an affectionate and trusting bond to feel safe in a new environment. It can be the mother, the father, the grandmother, or the nanny – an increasingly relevant player in today’s scenario of working mothers and fathers. It is very important for the baby that those peope are present, providing a sense of security, so that they can evolve. baby. Living is a very intimate and special moment between the baby and the adult they trust. A very specific exchange takes place, it is a moment in which the adult who is there with the child is actually there only for the child. No external influence takes the adult’s attention away from the child. And the child feels all this. They feel that both themselves and the adult are together, enjoying the moment, because, in fact, the whole experience is just one big game. Activities include songs, body movements, exchanging looks, touching, hugging, exchanging compliments, providing affection in unpleasant experiences, because this is also part of the formation of the human being. When babies fall and cry, they are taken care of by the father, the mother, or the nanny, and this spurs an emotional understanding that they will be cared for. baby.Living is a possibility to strengthen closer affective bonds, which has to be established during childhood, as the first two mechanisms that we have for understanding the world within our development are sensations and, then, perception. So, it is about skin, it is looking, it is caring, it is touching. I believe that projects such as like baby.Living are a great opportunity for us to help form sound, more humane, more empathetic, and wiser adults.
