Bonding & Communication

Best Beginnings, a charity supporting parents with babies, discusses how daily positive communication with children, will support their emotional, language and social development. A useful article with related videos can be found on this page. 

The National Literacy Trust have gathered up a range of popular songs and nursery rhymes which can be sung to babies; it is understood that rhythms and repetitive language make it easier for babies to learn language skills and as babies hear the same rhymes over and over again, they soon learn to join in with the actions. Singing and reciting along with a child also helps with bonding.

Free sticker books!

Reading charity, Book Trust have produced a sticker book as part of a pilot project to encourage more families with pre-school children to visit their local library; the children can collect the book at their library and will receive stickers each time they visit, to help complete 'Bear’s Reading Adventure'. Author of the book, Gemma Malley, said, 'If a parent reads to their children every day, they will be almost 12 months ahead of their age group when they start school. Even reading to them three to five times a week gives them a six-month head-start over those who read less often.'

Terrific Twos....

The main occupation for children aged two is play, which is crucial for their learning and development; one of the ways to encourage this, is through heuristic play i.e. child-led free play with a range of natural and household items for discovery and investigation, without adult intervention. 

This handy guide written by early years practitioners in Harrow, provides an insight into the characteristics and development of two year-olds; it covers attachment, communication, children with SEND, what parents can expect their child to be capable of and finishes with useful website links.

Community Playthings provides resources for nurseries; the 'Learning Library' section of their website covers a range of topics with supporting articles, case studies, videos, training resources and guides; click on a topic listed on the left of the page and you will find related guides displayed on the right.

Supporting Parents

A couple of presentations to make you aware of: Jacqui Hardie, Early Years consultant, delivered a recent presentation on supporting parents. She talks about what parents should expect during the various stages in their child's learning and development.

This presentation discusses 'Early Words Together', a programme aimed at empowering parents to help them support their pre-school child's communication and language development. The National Literacy Trust provide the resources and training to the volunteers who run the 6 week programme.  There's more information about it in the video below.

DfE & DH join hands...

The Government has announced plans to bring health and education reviews together for the first time, with assessments given by the Department for Education and the Department of Health, giving parents a more complete picture of their child’s progress. The scheme may entail health and early year’s professionals sharing information for children aged between 24 and 30 months old and carrying out the reviews together, when the integrated approach is implemented nationally from September.

To support this announcement, a new handbook 

‘What to expect when', supported by the DfE, 

has been produced for parents on child development.

The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds

Not to be missed - Channel 4 at 8pm tonight

A one-off documentary will take us inside the world of ten four-year-olds as they are brought together in a nursery. With their parents watching closely on monitors, the children meet each other for the first time in October and again, 6 months later. The film provides an insight into child development and the opportunity to see child observation in action, as two highly trained Early Years teachers and two leading scientists, make suggestions for some interventions to explore the children’s various stages of development.

The film reveals how their individual adult personalities are already being formed at this early stage in their lives. Some clips of the documentary can be viewed here.