Václav Vojta

In 1989, after the fall of the communist regime, Vojta returned to his native Czechoslovakia to receive tenure as Professor of Pediatric Neurology and Rehabilitation from Charles University in Prague, an honor denied him as a “politically unreliable person” under the Soviet regime. He was able to teach there once again, and continued to do so until his retirement in 1995. After his retirement, Vojta continued to lecture and teach around the world until his death in 2000.

In 1984, Vojta and his German colleagues formed the Vojta Society, dedicated to promoting and disseminating the principles of reflex locomotion in diagnostics and therapy, with the goal of training physiotherapists and physicians in the Vojta method. In 1998, the organization was renamed the International Vojta Society, over which Professor Vojta presided until his death. The non-profit society, with its headquarters in Munich, runs annual qualification seminars in Germany for health care professionals. Training around 150 doctors and physiotherapists a year, the qualification seminars focus on treatment of new-born babies, children and adults. Before his death, Professor Vojta traveled extensively, conducting seminars and training sessions worldwide.

Vojta received recognition in the form of awards and honors for his work throughout his career. In 1974 he was awarded the Heinrich Heine Prize, the highest award of the German Society for Orthopedics. In 1979 he received the "Growing with Each Other" Medal from the German association Aktion Sonnenschein for his work with disabled children. In 1983, he won the Ernst von Bergmann Prize for training in medicine from the German Medical Association. In 1990, Vojta was awarded the von Pfaundler Medal for training in pediatrics from the Professional Association of Pediatricians. In October 2000, Vojta was posthumously awarded the Czech Order of Merit by Vaclav Havel, the President of the Czech Republic.

In 1968, Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia, disrupting Vojta’s work and posing a threat to his professional future. Vojta, along with his wife and three small children, sought refuge in Germany. There, Vojta began work as a research fellow at the Orthopedic Clinic of the University of Cologne, pursuing his work in developmental kinesiological studies, and organizing courses in diagnostics and physical therapy. In 1975, Dr. Vojta relocated to Munich, taking a position at the Munich Children’s Centre, where he became head of the rehabilitation department.

Vojta began his studies in Prague in 1937, but due to the Nazi occupation, he was forced to postpone them, eventually earning his doctoral degree 10 years later, in 1947. He pursued training in pediatric neurology, working in the clinic at Charles University in Prague, and in 1956, he became head of the Department of Pediatric Neurology at the 4th Neurological Clinic of the Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague. Dr. Vojta is most noted for his work in developmental kinesiology and his discovery of reflex locomotion therapy, which became broadly known as the Vojta Method.

Václav Vojta (12 July 1917 – 12 September 2000) was a renowned Czech medical doctor who specialized in the treatment of children with cerebral palsy and developmental disorders. He discovered the principle of reflex locomotion, which is used to treat various physical and neuromuscular disorders through the stimulation of the human sensomotoric system's reflex points. Originally used in the treatment of spastic children, the technique is now used on babies and adults.