Today Tile Triggered Content

Even when you know all children develop at their own pace, it can be hard to resist the temptation to compare your baby’s progress with other children. If your friends’ children all seem to be walking, but your little one still likes to crawl you might begin to wonder if you should be worried – so here are a few things to think about.  

A broad range of ‘typical’  

Forming a secure attachment with your baby is a major support during their early development. Building relationships with caretakers in the early stages of life helps children develop their confidence, as well skills across all areas of learning.[1] 

Attachments formed in early childhood are great for supporting development across many areas. There are lots of ways that you can build a secure attachment with your baby to help this,^[1] for instance, listening to their unique cues or spending time singing, talking and playing with your baby from birth.  

While your baby is developing their grasping and self-feeding skills, you can allow them more space to work in by putting their finger foods directly onto the table or highchair tray.  

Room to move in the tray 

Early research took a rather negative view of children who had imaginary friends with suggestions that this could be linked to problems with social skills. In the 1940s book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, Dr Benjamin Spock suggested that if a child had an imaginary friend after the age of four, “a child psychiatrist, child psychologist or other mental-health counsellor should be able to find out what they are lacking.”^[1] You might be pleased to hear that recent research has shown a rather more positive impact of imaginary friends and you definitely don’t need to worry it’s a sign that your child is ‘lacking’ anything.  

We talk about imaginary friends; researchers describe imaginary companions – whatever we call them research has shown benefits of having one (or more!).  

You might have heard of the hormone oxytocin, perhaps when hearing about bonding with your baby. Oxytocin is sometimes called the ‘cuddle hormone’ or ‘love hormone’, but interestingly, studies have found that oxytocin levels also increase when we are stressed. It is thought that this might be in order to encourage us to seek out social contact, so if you are feeling stressed it might be time for a hug!  

Engagement with you – our My First Five Years parents and carers – is crucial to us. As well as the pages you use on our app, we also have a thriving Facebook community. It's a place for parents, grandparents and other carers to share their ideas, chat about their experiences and ask for tips and advice.  

There are probably only so many times you can listen to 'Pop Goes the Weasel', or 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' from Encanto! Finding pop music to share with your child can feel like a bit of a minefield at times – pretty much everyone has turned up their favourite track before realising that it might not quite be as three-year-old friendly as they originally thought.  

Sitting still, staying quiet, maintaining eye contact... these are all asked of children when they’re learning and often considered to be signs that the child is listening and learning effectively. But is it true that we learn best when sitting quietly, or is there value in getting the body involved and allowing fidgeting, movement and even learning on the go?  

Myth: Children should be sitting still and listening in order to learn.  

Scientists describe brain development as being ‘caudal to rostral’. Caudal comes from the Latin word 'caudum', which means tail, and rostral from the Latin 'rostrum', which means animal snout or beak. What this means is that our brains develop from the bottom upwards, with areas that control things such as reflexes, breathing and heart rate developing first, and areas that involve higher functions developing last.