Resources for Infant Educarers

Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE, pronounced "wry") is a Los Angeles-based non-profit world-wide membership organization dedicated to improving the quality of infant care and education through teaching, supporting, and mentoring. It advocates showing respect for a baby’s experience and encourages parents to treat their children as active participants rather than passive objects.

RIE was founded by the educator Magda Gerber and the pediatric neurologist Tom Forrest in 1978. It rose to prominence in the 21st century, when it was adopted by Hollywood celebrities and Early Head Start programs.

History

The roots of RIE go back to Hungary in the 1930s. Gerber worked with the pediatrician Emmi Pikler in a Budapest orphanage, where they put their approach to thousands of hours of scrutiny.[1] After the Second World War, Gerber took the child-rearing techniques she learned from Pikler and modified them for her own infant son, Bence, in what became the foundation for RIE. In the late 1950s, the family fled to Los Angeles. Together with Tom Forrest, Gerber established RIE in her new home in 1978.[2] The group remained there until her death in 2007. When Gerber’s family sold her house, the group moved to a Lutheran church on Melrose Avenue.[3]

The method attracted media attention when several celebrities started attending RIE baby groups or employing RIE educators. They included Hollywood stars Tobey Maguire, Penelope Cruz,[4] Helen Hunt, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jason Alexander, and Felicity Huffman and her husband William H. Macy,[5] as well as fashion designer Minnie Mortimer and her husband, screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, and L.A. Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel.[6] In Hollywood, the requests for nannies knowledgeable in RIE increased in 2015.[7]

In 2009, the Resources for Infant Educarers group started offering teacher training in Manhattan. The organization also has outposts in New York, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Boulder, Tulsa, Tampa and Melbourne, Fla., as well as in Alberta and Ontario. In addition to parenting classes and educator certification, RIE publishes parenting books, teaching manuals, and DVDs.[3]

In October 2010, the method went mainstream as RIE teaching materials arrived at 1,700 federally funded Early Head Start programs for families with infants and toddlers nationally.[3]

Method

RIE advocates showing respect for a baby’s experience,[8] such as talking to them in a clear simple way but without “baby talk.”[9] Parents are helped to raise self-confident, self-reliant and co-operative children.[1] RIE opposes the trend of helicopter parenting and advises "stepping back and giving your baby a chance to develop at her own pace rather than constantly bothering her with stimulating programmes and educational toys".[5]

This is achieved by interpreting cries as communication, rather than alarms; by making a safe, quiet environment filled with simple toys that promote active imaginations (no mobiles or TVs); and by taking a backseat instead of steering the baby toward a certain place or goal.[10] Objects that are considered disrespectful to a baby include sippy cups, high chairs, baby gyms, baby carriers, baby swaddles, and baby walkers, which Gerber called "a moving prison."[6] Parents practising RIE tell their children what they’re doing with them and why, such as asking them if they can pick them up and pausing so they can be prepared.[11]

Parents are taught the method in weekly sessions for children from three months to three years. Many of the babies who attend RIE classes subsequently attend Montessori pre-schools.[1] The more devoted parents are encouraged to take RIE training, where adult students experience what it feels like to be ignored or over-parented.[3]

The RIE philosophy is explained in the book "Baby Knows Best" by Deborah Carlisle Solomon, who was the executive director of RIE for eight years.[12]

RIE has been described as "a kinder, gentler, slowed down way of parenting",[13] encouraging parents to treat their children as active participants rather than passive objects.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lory Manrique-Hyland (17 December 2010). "Ditch the fancy toys" (PDF). Irish Examiner. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Lisa Belkin (8 November 2010). "The Newest, Latest Parenting Trend". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gina Piccalo (31 October 2010). "The Secret Celebrity Parenting Craze". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Howie Kahn. "The Mystique of Penélope Cruz". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  5. 1 2 Patricia Carswell (6 December 2010). "Learn to respect your baby" (PDF). The National (UAE). Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  6. 1 2 Vanessa Grigoriadis (31 January 2014). "Childhood's End". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  7. ↑ Sharon Swart (2 October 2015). "Chefs, Nannies and Housekeepers: How Hollywood's Elite Staffs Up at Home". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Mandy Velez (28 January 2014). "So, What Is RIE Parenting?". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Sara Connolly. "5 things RIE parents do". Bundoo. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  10. ↑ Vicki Santillano. "The RIE Approach: Is It Right for Your Family?". Divine Caroline. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  11. ↑ Rose Brennan (1 June 2014). "Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) supporter Kate Russell endorses “respect” in parenting". Courier Mail. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  12. ↑ Abbie Boudreau (16 January 2014). "Hollywood Hypes RIE Parenting: Is the Hands-Off Approach for You?". ABC News: Good Morning America. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  13. ↑ Mindy Peterman (19 March 2014). "A conversation with Deborah Solomon, author of 'Baby Knows Best'". Digital Journal. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  14. ↑ Lea Wee (25 May 2015). "Is parenting over-analysed?". Asia One Women. Retrieved 16 January 2016.

External links

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