Today Tile Triggered Content

“Play is a conduit through which children nurture the social and cognitive skills required to learn how to learn.”^[1] 

Sleep (or lack of it) will take up a lot of your and your baby’s time, and well-meaning friends and family will probably have tons of advice for you. In this article, we explore some of what is known about a newborn baby's sleep pattern. It might not give you more shut-eye, but it will help to make sense of the topsy turvy sleep routines you may be experiencing.

You might have heard people talking about 'treasure baskets' or seen adverts for them and wondered what exactly people were talking about. Here, we explain what this tantalizing term involves, why you might want one for your baby, as well as how can you make one at home. 

What is a treasure basket? 

Babies, toddlers and children learn through play, and your playful interactions with your new baby have a big part in this!

Can you capture a moment on your camera at the same time once a day?  

Samuel Ryde did! A London-based photographer, Samuel took one photo every day at 12.34pm for 10 years, purely to capture everyday moments. He took photos of things that he normally walked past without even noticing. These photos were taken wherever he was at that exact time. 

Sam’s idea encourages us to start taking notice of the ‘normal’ – the things we stop looking at. 

Your child’s knowledge and understanding of their world is ever growing, and even though children tend to notice more than adults,^[1,2] they may not think the ordinary, day-to-day things they see are worth talking about, especially when little focus is put on them by their family and friends. 

Are you taking the sides off your child’s cot, or perhaps they’re moving from your bed into their own? Here are five of our favourite books that will set the scene for bedtime and support your child in settling into a new routine. 

Your toddler might be realising the reflection in the mirror is them, and this is thought to show that their self-awareness is developing. The experiment that shows this involves putting a dot on a child’s face without them noticing. If they touch their face when they look in the mirror, it is thought that they understand that the reflection is them. 

According to Britannica.com, hide and seek was first described by a second-century Greek writer, Julius Pollux. It is a game that has been around for a while and is played throughout the world.  

Touch is one of the first senses we develop, well before before birth.^[1] It helps us learn about the world and feel connected with those around us. We express a variety of emotions through touch and it's an important part of developing relationships. When we hug someone, it is a sure-fire way of letting them know they are cared for and loved. 

Hugs are great for lots of reasons – here are just a few! 

You can see the concentration etched onto their face as the ball zooms through the air towards them. They have it all planned out, bat ready in hand. But what might actually help your child to hit the ball is not thinking about their arms at all.  

Have you heard about constrained action hypothesis? If not, it means that when people are performing a physical activity and their main focus is on their movements, it might reduce their success.