Additional Influences

In addition to Magda Gerber’s RIE® Educaring® approach, I incorporate the wisdom of Magda Gerber’s mentor, Dr. Emmi Pikler, as well as insights from Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf Education to these classes.

Dr. Emmi Pikler

I am inspired by Emmi Pikler to help promote healthy physical and psychological development in children. In addition to her overall philosophy, which is mirrored in the RIE methods, I appreciate the attention and support she gave to new mothers and babies.

“Emmi Pikler was an Austria-born, well-known pediatrician in Budapest (Hungary), in the 1930s…Her vision of a healthy infant was an active, competent and peaceful infant, who lives in peace with himself and his environment… She would visit infants and families weekly, discuss with the parents how to promote their development, based on their view of the child and her own observations, and provide guidance to mothers about upbringing practices and how to create an optimal facilitating environment for their infant.”

– by Anna Tardos, taken from The Pikler Collection

Read the entire article here.

Dr. Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, had deep insight into the developing child. After RIE classes, my children attended Waldorf schools and I have found there to be a deep relationship between the two approaches.  Steiner encourages us to support the developing child by creating a rhythmic home life and protecting the child’s developing senses. Most importantly of all, he asks us to become aware of ourselves so we can be worthy of our child’s unquestioning imitation.

Read more about Waldorf here.

Yvonne Kissell Doebler

This is my mother. She was a major influence on my parenting even though she died many years before I had my children. She was always there when I needed her and it was easy to get her full attention. She let me make my own choices and believed in me.

Modern Child Development and Neuroscience

My previous career was spent in health sciences, and I very much appreciate how in my lifetime, our understanding of the immense natural capacities of babies has dramatically expanded. I share what I know about the research on human development, including attachment and regulation theories, affective neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology, as well as ecological systems.