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What you need

• A simple recipe (try our banana pancakes visual recipe below!)
• Equipment and space to cook
• A safe place for your child to sit or stand while they cook

The steps

• Find a recipe your child can follow with you, and eventually take the lead on! Recipes with pictures or photos are ideal for this - try our banana pancake recipe below.
• Give your child as much ownership of the cooking process as possible, letting them measure or pour ingredients, do the mixing and any other jobs they're able to do safely. 
• Although you’ll always need to be by their side keeping them safe while they cook, as they get to know the recipe they can start to use you as an assistant instead of the other way around! 

Benefits for your child

• By having a recipe they can follow more independently they can also practise important cognitive skills as they make sense of the pictures and recall the order tasks need to be done in.  
• They will enjoy being more independent and able to make food or snacks for you to enjoy. 

Recipe idea:

Your child might be starting to talk more about the things that they remember and be making connections between different experiences. This is something we do all the time as adults, but did you know your approach to talking about and remembering events – what we call reminiscing – will help your child to build their own memories and social understanding? 

Talking to your child is second nature, from chatting about your plans for the day to explaining an exciting new thing they’ve spotted and answering those endless questions about the world.  

Interoception is our sense of what is happening inside our body. People with a strong interoceptive sense will notice quickly (and so be able to act on it) when they are hungry, full, tired or need the toilet. Interoception also helps us to recognise and understand our emotions, and this is something that researchers are increasingly recognising as important for protecting and promoting good mental health.^[1] 

Feelings are often talked about as a very brain-based sensation, but our bodies also experience changes and send messages to the brain which informs how we feel;^[2] often the physical response to an event or experience is in fact part of our emotional reaction. 

What you need  

• A lift-the-flap book (Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell or Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill are great)  

The steps 

• Read a lift-the-flap book with your baby; watch how they react and enjoy their excitement.  
• Keep your baby’s interest by reacting with surprise to the things you discover.   

• Your baby will quickly learn what is behind each flap and won’t tire of doing this with you time and again.  
• Try using different voices and at different speeds, especially if you’re reading a favourite book over and over.  

Benefits for your baby 

• Your baby has grown to understand that things and people exist even when they can’t actually see them at a given moment; they’re learning to anticipate what is going to happen next, based on experience.   

Building on 

• Add a personal touch to a lift-the-flap book by using masking tape to secure photos of your family, friends, pets or other things your baby likes to look at under each flap. They will enjoy uncovering the familiar faces as they open each flap! (Always supervise your baby with this activity, as they may be able to peel the photosaway from the page. Ensure they do not put them in their mouths.) 

The steps 

• Babies and toddlers love repetition – and learn lots from it too. But if you’re starting to feel that repeating another round of ‘Wheels on the Bus’ is simply too much to cope with, have a look online for new rhymes to learn – and sing over and over again! 
• One option is to look for old folk songs and rhymes, which might not be so well known but often have a lovely simple rhythm. This is one we love to sing to our babies at a calm moment:  
  
   

“Down in the valley 

What you need  

• A blanket or a comfortable place to sit, ideally under a tree   

What to do  

• Place a blanket on the floor and lie down on your backs so you can look at the leaves of the tree, or the clouds.   
• Babies, especially young ones, might not notice the clouds, so lie together under a tree and enjoy the movement of the light through the leaves. Even if they seem more interested in looking around at other things they will notice that lying down outside feels different to being inside. 
• Talk about what you can see, using lots of describing words to talk about the colours, shapes and shadows. 

• Save this activity for a dull day, don’t look at the sky if the sun is bright.   

Benefits for your child 

• Your baby will be experiencing different sensations, from the weather to the sounds of the outdoors, which will help them develop their awareness of the world around them. 
• They will also be seeing the world from a new perspective, which will help them make sense of where their body is in relation to the space, and objects, around them. 

Building on 

• If you have children of different ages, this is a perfect activity for everyone to enjoy together and could be a great way to relax after a trip to the park, or playing some games. 
• As your baby gets older, they will enjoy spotting shapes in the clouds as well. 

What you need

• A safe outdoor space, such as a back garden or park   

The steps 

• On a nice day, find a safe outdoor space for your baby to explore.   
• Take off their shoes and socks so that they can explore the textures of grass or mud under their toes, and let them have some tummy time in the grass.   
• If you’re concerned about the grass getting into your baby’s mouth, you can place them on a blanket, with their feet over the edge so that they can still feel the ground under their toes.   
• Encourage them to reach or move forwards, towards you or an interesting object, and notice how they use their feet to help make the movement.   

Benefits for your child 

• Feeling different textures will help your baby understand the signals their feet send to the rest of their body when they are developing their fine motor muscles.   
• As their toes press into the ground, they might take a moment to be surprised by the new sensation of grass or mud, and want to explore it further by wiggling their toes or kicking their feet. This offers them lots of brilliant gross and fine motor movement development. 

Building on 

• You can offer your baby lots of opportunity to explore new sensations with their feet by placing them on different textures. Wet mud, sand, soft carpet, hard floors, grass and even bubble wrap or foil will all give different experiences. (Always supervise your baby while they play, and don’t allow them to put bubble wrap or foil near their mouth.) 

What you need  

• A large, light ball, like a beachball   

The steps 

• Lie your baby on their back and place the ball on their tummy.   
• Watch to see if your baby can move the ball with their body. They might use their feet as they kick or wriggle.  
• If the ball rolls away, gently stop it and ask your baby if they’d like it back. If they seem to be enjoying the game, gently place it back on their tummy. 

Benefits for your child 

• For very young babies, practising the action of moving a ball with their feet may encourage them to move their feet towards their mouth. 

• Older babies will be able to practise gripping with their hands or feet, and moving them more deliberately to achieve the goal of moving the ball. 

Building on 

• If they enjoy this, you can try placing the ball in slightly different positions on or close to their arms and legs. 
• As your baby gets older, you can place the ball on their tummy and ask them if they can use only their arms, or legs, to move it. They might not quite get it at first, but it will get them thinking about which body parts are moving as they play.  

What you need 

• Space to sit comfortably, where you won’t mind singing! 

For the first few weeks of your baby's life, crying is an important way for them to communicate their needs. They will, in the next few weeks, start to smile, look and move as a means of communicating, but crying will remain an important part of their repertoire! We look at what is known about crying and young babies, and some of the things that might soothe your newborn.

How much do babies cry? 

We know that every baby is different and that is why we support you to follow your baby’s individual journey. Despite a wide variation between individual babies and the amount that they cry, there is a pattern to young babies’ crying. The amount a baby cries increases after a couple of weeks and reaches a peak after a few months, then gradually reduces; the ‘crying curve’^[1] shows this pattern.