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Amazing Babies: Essential Movement for Your Baby in the First Year
By Beverly Stokes

Amazing Babies is a "guide to parent-baby interactions and adult movement explorations." The book "is designed to provide you with a dynamic developmental movement framework for relating to your amazing baby in new ways," says Stokes, founder of the Center for Experiential Learning. "Using this framework, you will expand your observation skills to understand how babies move to learn, communicate, and interact in their environment."

Moshe Feldenkrais observed the movement patterns of infants and adults to discover the ways we limit ourselves as we grow older. Disused or underused neural pathways gradually drop from our movement repertoire. As time goes on, we begin to use a more and more restricted set of movement patterns. Infants begin with reflex movement patterns, for example, the rooting reflex, the Moro reflex, and others.

According to Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist, we use these reflex patterns to build our more voluntary patterns through success and repetitions. As adults, we can enhance our movement patterns by re-exploring and re-creating the movements to the point of strengthening the relevant neural circuits. Then when you move, you will organize yourself more effectively for the task at hand.

Beverly Stokes, who trained with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of the School for Body-Mind Centering, says, "Body movement is the essential ingredient needed for babies to develop a healthy body image, to explore their environment, and to build self-confidence through their successful play interactions." In this book, Stokes promises that we will learn how to provide age-appropriate activities that will enhance the baby's development. "The experiential exercises are designed for you to do, so that you can better relate to your baby's movement language," she says. "They are based on your baby's natural movement development in the first year." The movement explorations to be experienced by both the parent(s) and baby will have "a wide range of physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits."

She reminds us that "movement is both functional and expressive. ...If you also explore the exercises, you will reach a new understanding of how your baby's body movement directly influences his body-confidence, social interactions, and problem-solving. ...Learning through the experience of movement will make you more aware of your baby's subtle movement development, communication cues, and problem-solving skills."

Chapters include: Part One: "Pre-Locomotion Stage--Newborn to Five Months"; "Born to Move"; "Sensing and Feeling through Movement"; "Discovery in Play with Two Hands"; "Moving from Motivation to Mastery"; and "Directing Discovery"; and Part Two: "Locomotion Stage--Six to Twelve Months"; "Dance of Development"; "Minds on the Move"; "Actions before Words"; "Timing in Action"; "Connecting Feelings and Thoughts in Action"; "Orienting in Space on Two Feet"; and "Stepping into the World."

Amazing Babies is an amazing book based on the extensive work of Beverly Stokes. This is a terrific resource for learning how to enhance the movement experiences of your own baby or babies you work with. For example, I am looking forward to sharing this book with baby Lynnea Soleil Hanna and her parents. For somatic educators, it can enrich your understanding of your clients and of the classes you teach.

Features of the book include wonderful, expressive photos of babies and adults and drawings (which increase clarity). Special features include: "Adult Movement Explorations"; "Parent-Baby Interactions"; "In Your Journal" (at the ends of chapters); and "Highlights" (developmental stages).

To get full benefit from this book requires your active participation. Somatic developmental stages are accurately and meaningfully portrayed. Sidebars feature vignettes and photos so that you can experience the reality of a particular baby's experience. Stokes cautions us about car seats, bouncers, and playpens.

Her delightful insights include the observation that movement organizes emotions. She gives very clear examples of how this develops. For example, "When he is distressed he might act out a whole story! His body movement is the outward expression that tells us what he is feeling."

She introduces us to "FloorPlay" sessions, which can increase "bonding with your baby ... by exploring, interacting, and learning together at your baby's level." She concludes by saying, "This amazing first year of development has set the stage for your toddler to master new movement skills, elaborate on her social communication skills, and explore new adventures just around the corner."

Beverly Stokes is certified in Body Mind Centering©. She is also a Registered Movement Educator through ISMETA. Stokes founded the Center for Experiential Learning in 1985. "A leader in the field of infant movement development, communication, and learning," she has more than twenty years of experience working professionally with babies, children, and adults. Stokes conducts developmental movement workshops throughout the United States and Canada.