Being respectful of infants and toddlers is a concept brought to the world firstly by Dr Emmi Pikler, and then further by her friend and colleague Magda Gerber. In 2021 it is hard to believe that being respectful of children had not previously been part of the rhetoric in early childhood education prior to 1998. But with damning statistics worldwide of child abuse and neglect, this is a concept that is imperative all adults get their head around. We may love children, but we don’t always respect them.

Magda Gerber strongly advocated that when we respect a child, we treat them as a human being, not as an object. Although this may sound like an obvious distinction, it actually requires some careful consideration to truly grasp the difference here. The following diagram gives us a comparison of how we might treat an object vs a respected human child…

(Magda Gerber 1998)

For those of us entrusted with the most important role of educarer for our infants and toddlers, the starting point of our care must be RESPECT. I could not say it any more beautifully than Magda herself;