In July 2007 in Phoenix, AZ, the attendees of a Rhythmic Movement Course with Dr. Harald Blomberg from Sweden were able to see him work with a young baby girl.

 A mother brought her daughter, Sophie, 11 months old to the class.  Sophie was born 3 months premature.  She had many complications since that early birth.  One of them was a developmental delay.  She had no control of her head and couldn’t keep it from moving around.  Her development was that of a very young baby.  The doctors also thought she was deaf, as she did not respond to sounds around her.   According to her mother, her hands were always in a closed fist and out to either side of her head. Sophie had never crawled, sat up or walked or even rolled from back to front.  After months of physical therapy appointments there was little improvement in her condition.

 Dr. Blomberg had Sophie lie on her back and started the gentle rhythmic movements.

After a few moments, we could see her concentrating on her new experience with these stimulating movements.  Within minutes, Sophie started doing things her mother had never seen her do before.  Sophie turned her head back and forth from side to side on the mat.  Her hands were relaxed and opening and closing.  After about 15 minutes, while Dr. Blomberg was continuing the movements, Sophie grabbed her mother’s long necklace that was dangling in front of her and brought it to her mouth.  There was a shrill of excitement coming from Sophie’s neighbor as she observed the progress.  This was her first midline movement, they are essential for proper brain functioning.

 The next step was to turn Sophie over onto her stomach. After a few moments she starting kicking and raising her bottom in the air to start the crawling action. These are all movements that she had never experienced before.  The room was filled with excitement and there were several tear filled eyes as they watched the transformation occurring before them.  Sophie smiled and starting cooing at all the faces that were watching her. She lifted her head off the mat and then found her thumb and started sucking it for the first time. Another midline movement. 

 At the end of the half hour session, Sophie’s mother lifted her into a sitting position and Sophie was able to hold her head up on her own and say Mama for the first time.  Again the room was in awe of what was happening before their very eyes.

 Needless to say, Sophie’s mother and neighbor were overjoyed with the session.

Dr. Blomberg’s students were deeply moved and inspired about this work.  Everyone came away from that session with a deeper understanding of the simplistic and gentle way that nature can unfold.  He said with continued Rhythmic Movements Sophie would grow and develop normally.  An amazing gift.

Written by:  Nancy G. Peterson      This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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