Emmi Pikler

Emmi Pikler
Born Emilie Madleine Reich
(1902-01-09)January 9, 1902
Vienna
Died June 6, 1984(1984-06-06) (aged 82)
Budapest
Citizenship Hungarian
Known for pediatrician and infant educator

Emmi Pikler (born 9 January 1902 in Vienna; died 6 June 1984 in Budapest, birth name Emilie Madleine Reich) was a Hungarian pediatrician who introduced new theories of infant education, and put them into practice at an orphanage she ran.

Life

Emmi Pikler was born in 1902 and spent her early childhood in Vienna. She was the only child of a Viennese kindergarten teacher and a Hungarian craftsman. In 1908 her parents moved to Budapest. When Pikler was 12 years old, her mother died.

She returned to Vienna to study Medicine, where she received her medical degree in 1927. She received her pediatric training at the Vienna University Children's Hospital by Clemens von Pirquet and studied pediatric surgery by Hans Salzer.

Pikler's third teacher was her own husband, a mathematician and educator through whose experiences she was confirmed in its development physiological considerations. They decided together, at the birth of her first child, to allow the child freedom of movement and to await her development patiently. At first they lived in Trieste and later in Budapest. In 1935 Pikler qualified as a pediatrician in Hungary. Their goal was to promote the healthy development of the child. From the experience with her daughter, she knew that a child must not be stimulated to movement and to games and that every detail in dealing with the child and their environment is important. Pikler wrote and gave lectures about the care and upbringing of infants and young children. She published her first book for parents in 1940 and it went through several editions in Hungary and other countries. The ten years that she worked as a family doctor were difficult for them not only because the family was Jewish, but also because her husband was in prison for political reasons from 1936 to 1945. With the help of the parents of the children she cared for, she and her family survived the persecution of Jews during World War II.

After the war she gave birth to two more children. She did not open her private practice again, but worked for a national association for abandoned and malnourished children. In addition to other activities, she founded the Lóczy orphanage (named after the street where it was located) in 1946, which she headed until 1979. She sought to establish a comforting atmosphere, including careful selection of the staff, to allow children at the orphanage to grow up without the usual institutional damage.

Elsa Gindler and Henry Jacoby found in the 1920s that it was essential to understand the natural path of child development in order to allow the child's initial skills and powers to develop. Gindler and Jacoby explained that traditional infant and early childhood education damaged the initiative of children and stunted their development.

In 1946 Pikler founded the Lóczy Institute in Budapest. Under her leadership, and by the publication of books and scientific publications, an internationally known institution developed that is now managed by Pikler's daughter, child psychologist Anna Tardos. After Pikler retired in 1978, she continued her scientific and consultative work in Lóczy. In the last years of her life she received in Hungary and other countries. In 1984 Pikler died after a short but severe illness.

Pikler's methods of raising infants and young children have been popularized in the United States by her student Magda Gerber.

Books

Bibliography

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