What is Conta Kids

What is ContaKids?

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Tactility is a fundamental sensory experience of our environment. As children, we first make sense of the world physically. Contakids is a methodology that pushes the idea of using physical contact to develop a deeper form of communication between parents and their children, that BOTH will find enjoyable. One of the main aims of ContaKids is to offer a safe space for the participants to explore, play and enjoy the present moment as much as possible.

At ContaKids we learn how to fail and fall. And we celebrate it like we celebrate success because the mutual attempt is the important act.

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As Itay Yatuv, Contakids founder says:

“The best form of learning is experience. And what we, grown-ups, refer to as failure is a key aspect of this process.”

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Why? “Failure” and experience cannot be dismissed. They bring adaptation skills, trust, confidence, persistence, resilience, commitment, and much more. By giving your child the space to fail, you also offer them (and yourself) the opportunity to gain a better understanding of themselves and what they are capable of doing.

Are we ready to FALL?

How does it look from a ContaKids point of view?

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We’ll let Itay answer this with the second part of the quote:

“Let the child encounter everything, while minimally protecting him/her;

Allow the child to fall as much as possible, for it has an important impact on his/her ability to develop effective soft-landing skills;

Aim to understand where they could really get hurt and interfere specifically.  The rest is within the range of important experimentation.”

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What are some of the benefits of ContaKids?

• Children improve their motor skills and self-confidence, while parents build a bond of trust between their child and themselves.

• Dancing together places the roles of adult and child on an equal footing; each has the freedom to choose their next move and nothing is forced upon the other; the child develops their independence with the support of the parent, allowing for a more open physical communication.

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• Children learn self-reliance and develop an independent spirit. Additionally, parents learn to interact with them as equals that they support unconditionally.

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• When we encourage the child to feel responsible for their bodies, then we support them to became more active and aware of the possibilities available to them on the bodily terrain of the adult.

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• When the adult refrains from using their hands to keep the child on their body, they develop motor skills by finding new positions to stop the little one from slipping off; the ability to sense and receive information through the skin is awakened. Thus, we become aware of the child’s exact location on ourselves, the manner in which the child is staying in place and the position that they are in.

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• Parents and children develop a deeper form of communication that both find enjoyable, through movement, working with the body, and physical contact.

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A little bit about Marina:

Hi! My name is Marina, a playful and friendly movement practitioner with almost 10 years of experience working in early years and combining her passion for movement and education.

After my Postgraduate diploma in Community Dance, I felt like I found my “breath” again by completing the ContaKids training in my beloved home country, Greece in 2022. That was the moment that I meet Itay Yutav, the founder of the ContaKids methodology and connected with brilliant movement practitioners across Europe. Since then, Contakids is an inseparable part of my practice with families, schools and intergenerational communities. In the session everyone is welcome and I will be inviting adults to feel playful and curious to explore with their little ones the environment around them.

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Want to try for yourself?

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Join us for our Moving Waves x Conta Kids workshop at the end of the month!

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• July 30th, 10:30-11:30
• Chestnuts Park, N15 3QA
• Click here to buy tickets

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