LIKE adults, every baby is different. Your baby may be easygoing and calm, or wakeful and active. They may settle quickly into a regular routine or be more unpredictable.
If they are fussy or unsettled, it doesn't mean they're being naughty or annoying you on purpose. Crying is their way of communicating.
The most important years for a child's brain are the early years. So much growth and development takes place which has an impact for a lifetime. So how you speak, handle and respond to your baby shapes their brain.
That's why mums and dads sing and chat to babies all day long. They are nurturing their baby's brain and helping all the connections to grow strong and healthy. They are developing a strong emotional bond with baby. This in turn builds strong foundations for learning, behaviour and relationships.
Through simple interactions and everyday experiences, using our five senses, we can stimulate our baby's brain cells to connect into neural pathways. By repeating activities with our baby, particularly during the first three years, we help to strengthen these pathways and lay a foundation for all their future learning. Whether the connections are for learning mathematics or for loving relationships, they are strengthened simply through play and interaction, especially with people the baby knows and trusts.
