Discover a new career in child development
Learn the First-Step Method, a leading approach to enrich and guide babies from infancy.
Next training program opens on November 26th, 2024.
Realizing the full potential of babies
The first two years of a baby’s life set the tone for the rest of their lives.
Correct development of babies paves the way for flourishment of motoric, sensory and cognitive abilities.
The First-Step method offers a unique and comprehensive set of skills, promoting optimal growth in babies aged from birth to two.
Guided by the principles of the Feldenkrais method, with over 35 years of experience, our professional training program instructs individuals how to enrich the developmental process of babies, by focusing on senso-motorical and biomechanical techniques.
Our hands-on approach combines theoretical and practical tools to teach our students how to talk, touch, and guide parents of babies.
This course is open to people from all walks of life. Whether you’re a parent, a professional in the field, or simply looking for a career change, our professional training program will enhance your interactions with both babies and parents.
This program will teach you how to guide other parents and their babies, to achieve normative development.
Graduates will also learn how to assess and guide a variety of developmental delays, as well as orthopedic attention, and communication challenges in early childhood.
Our program has trained over 3,000 professional instructors with our one-of-a-kind approach. We teach developmental support, assessment training, and guiding strategies to individuals and parents alike. Upon completion of the program, students receive an internationally-recognized Instructor in Infant Development Certificate.
A unique program that leads children and babies in their earliest stages
What Makes First-Step So Special?
What differentiates the First-Step Method from other programs is that we emphasize the link between infancy development and later childhood/adolescence problems and find ways to prevent them from manifesting. To mitigate future issues, we emphasize the following:
01
Proper Development
Motor and sensory development in babies is the infrastructure for fulfilling the baby’s full potential in later years.
02
Getting to Know Milestones
From birth to age two, motor and sensory development unfolds in fixed, systematic stages. Babies need to complete every step in each stage to develop properly.
03
Suitable Environment
For appropriate motor and sensory development, babies need a suitable environment, including their parents, their physical conditions, and how people relate to them.
04
Parent-Oriented
Join Our Comprehensive Professional Training Program
The next training program opens on November 26th, 2024 and includes an in-person practicum. Upon completing the course, students receive an internationally-acclaimed Instructor in Infant Development Certificate to honor their hard work and understanding of the First-Step Method.
The program is in English.
Training Program Objectives
Upon completion of the course, students will have in-depth knowledge of the infant development field and intensive practical expertise through the significant experience of individual learning.
Participants will study how babies learn senso-motorically, as well as how they create their own cognitive perception and emotional personality.
Throughout the program, we will also discuss the trials and tribulations of modern parenting, including the connection between the baby’s environment and how that affects daily routine habits that encourage or disrupt their developmental skills.
This training also teaches participants how to assess, consult, treat and educate familial constellations to support baby’s development during their first two years.
The training is hands-on, based on the Feldenkrais method, together with vast theoretical biomechanical analysis and functional anatomy. While courses take place over Zoom, participants will practice the skills they learn on real-life babies to see actual reactions. Participants will also engage in an in-person practicum over the course of a week to ensure they have mastered the tools they learned.
Our next training program will start on November 26th, 2024.
Course Framework:
180 online hours
80 practicum hours in-person over the course of one week, location and time TBD
Our next training program Starts on November 26th, 2024
Course Infrastructure:
- Experiential learning about infant development stages
- Presentations and lectures
- Workshop observation
- Private lesson observation
- Facilitating workshops and private classes
Meet the Founder
Shai Silberbusch
Director and Founder
Shai Silberbusch is an expert in infant and child development, and a senior teacher of the Feldenkrais Method. With over 35 years of experience, Shai is renowned in the field of child development, and is an accurate diagnostician with powerful intuition. He has diagnosed and successfully treated hundreds of children with special needs and supported their families through therapeutic training.
Throughout his career of working with adults and children, Shai honed in on the correlation between infant development and how children and adults behave. These insights, as well as his personal experience as a father of three, allowed him to develop an exceptional method that helps parents and individuals fully realize their babies’ motoric and developmental abilities.
He developed the First-Step Method, which led him to found and direct the First-Step College. The College has trained hundreds of infant development therapists all over the world.
Shai heads the First-Step Center’s team of experts, and his involvement is reflected directly and indirectly in each diagnostic and therapeutic process. His vision is that every family in need of help can experience a therapeutic process using the First-Step method – and with its help – to achieve change.
Shai speaks six languages: English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Hebrew.
Training Program Details
Part 1
Hands-on experience: the world from the baby’s point of view.
Part 2
Methodical learning: the infant’s development stages.
Part 3
Guided observation of babies in a different way.
Now that participants have learnt how babies feel and have mastered basic know-how about infant development, they start developing their observational skills. Babies get observed at the First-Step center, so that participants can fully understand how babies move in space, how they transition from one stage to the next, when they encounter difficulties and so forth. During these sessions, students learn what to pay attention to, which types of interventions are possible, and more.
Part 4
Guided observation: working with babies in a group format.
This part features structured study of the practical exercises that have developed at First-Step for parents and babies without special needs. The developmental support approach taught at the Center stresses the importance of working in open “regular” groups of parents and babies. This enables child-parent interaction and offers means of advancing normative development to avoid future developmental difficulties. At this stage, students observe the instructor and the exercises being performed, to achieve understanding of the rationale underlying them.
Part 5
Observing individual work: how to diagnose and treat developmental delays.
Part 6
Observing a developmental support workshop: hands-on experience in working in a group format.
Students participate in a developmental support workshop at the Center to enhance their understanding of the First-Step methodology.
Part 7
Internship: personally guided experience in facilitating individual and group classes.
The internship at First-Step is an integral part of the study program and accounts for the 60 hours of practicum. During this week, students interact with the target population (mothers, fathers and babies), including normative babies and those who present a variety of delays and problems. Every internship is an opportunity for participants to use all they have learned and practice it in real-time. This opportunity also teaches an in-depth understanding of the entire diagnostic process, from examining babies, identifying problems, and choosing the best therapeutic treatment.
Culmination
Upon completing all course requirements, participants receive an Instructor in Infant Development Certificate.
What Our Graduates Have to Say
Ronka and Or
First-Step Method instructors
Mother and daughter
“We own a gym and decided to offer mother & baby workshops in our studio. The course taught us about the body and movement and added some missing aspects.”
Moran Pichon
First-Step Method instructor
“I realized that I’d found my vocation in life. I work with parents and babies in their earliest days. This profession brings me tremendous happiness and satisfaction.”
