SHOES FOR BABIES
Do babies need shoes? If yes, then when and what kind? It
seems to be a big hustle for parents to choose the right ones,
and what is interesting that the whole hustle is about their
look rather than anything else. By the time the baby makes
its first steps with his beautiful little feet (at the age
of 9-10 months) the sleepless mom is more concerned about
the shoes as a decoration than a tool of improving his ability
to walk.
Do we think that this aspect doesn't mean anything for babies?
Do we think that they are too small to "understand"
the meaning of it? May be they do not understand indeed, but
they do feel, no doubt about it. Considering that babies start
walking at about 9 months of age and before that have experienced
standing and walking with the outside help, they have really
not much time for exploring the importance of shoes in their
movement skill development.
But exactly at this age the base of our children's ability
to move properly is formed. Many experts, teachers, parents
tend to think that learning to walk and run is a natural process,
some type of uncontrolled, accidental experience of trial
and errors, when our children learn "spontaneously"
how to execute their motions in the best way.
From this point of view the role of shoes is not important.
Therefore, the shoe industry just reflects this vision and
works on "pretty" shoes. Whatever is there on the
market (with some happy exceptions, happening more often in
recent years) it's all about color, form, or decoration aspects
of shoes and not about their functional value.
Teaching babies how to walk and run is a low priority for
the shoe industry. Fashion is a domination scheme and is logical
for the society where learning to walk and run is a "natural"
process of trials and errors. This philosophy dominates everything
up to adult age and still has a strong influence at present
time. But just with the questions of "What is an error?"
and "How should we correct it?" we can add some
doubt to this kind of vision.
Considering that an error, by the dictionary definition,
is a deviation from the standard, we have to come up with
the definition of the standard of walking and running. Do
we leave it for babies to figure it out? Leave this responsibility
on their intuition and some number of negative trials?
Coming back to the previous statement we have to understand
that at this age the right movement development is fundamental
for their whole life. It is the first stroke in the whole
picture of movement, building the matrix of movement, the
most profound sensory system of movement, missing which will
echo with painful consequences later in life. Something as
basic, as learning to speak.
Babies do not understand the importance of this, but we should.
From this point of view, baby shoes need to be made certainly
in a fashionable and colorful manner, but also with the functional
aspect of walking and running properly in mind. They need
to be helpful in building a profound sensory system, in enhancing
muscular coordination and perceiving influence from the environment
(gravity) in the best possible way for the regulation of their
ability to move.
Dr.Romanov
P.S. Few children naturally run good, majority has to be
taught how to run. However, there are still more examples
of good running form than among adults.
P.S.S. As adult shoes, babies' shoes should be thin soled
lightweight and flexible.
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