Why is Child Development So Important in Early Years?

Provide enough stimulation for the baby

This includes talking to them, reading them books with pictures, making eye contact, playing with them (e.g. tickling) and showing them toys (brightly coloured, black and white, red and white, or those that make a noise are best). Stimulation helps babies to engage mentally and develop their senses.

Help to strengthen their muscles

You can do this by giving them a gentle baby massage, or putting them on their stomach for a short period of time (strengthening their neck and back). Always make sure they are awake and you are close by when you do this. Babies also need time to lie on their backs with their arms and legs free to kick and wave around – this builds up further strength.

Respond straight away when they cry

This builds a strong bond between you and them, which aids their social/emotional development and stops them from becoming too distressed or taking in too much air.

Support bonding and attachment

You can do this by having skin-to-skin contact, talking to them often, feeding and bathing them, playing with them, and making eye contact. Doing this makes the baby feel safe and cared for, and allows them to put down foundations for loving relationships now and later on in their life.

Respond to their early communication efforts

If they make noise, respond with noise or words of your own – this teaches them to communicate. Do the same thing with smiles. When you’re talking, stay relatively close so that the baby can look at your mouth moving. Also try singing to the baby and playing around with different tones and volumes (e.g. whispering) to see how that affects their responses.

Set routines

Newborn babies benefit from consistency – try to feed them and put them down to sleep at similar times each day.

Give them opportunities for physical development

Giving infants enough time out of their cot or bouncer allows them to move around and explore, further developing their muscles. Even helping them to sit up is extremely beneficial in increasing their balance. As an extra step, you can bounce them on your knee when you do this.

Encourage the infant to reach for objects by putting their toys slightly further away than you normally would. When they reach 9-12 months, you could help them learn to walk by holding their hands as they try, or giving them a toy trolley to push along. It’s also a good idea to frequently give them a piece of paper and some chalk to make marks – this is the beginning of learning to write, and takes a lot of practice!

Develop their listening skills

You can do this by making different sounds, using toys with bells or different sound effects, and playing different types of music. Watch how the baby reacts, and reward them with a smile and a hug.

Talking to the baby is also really beneficial here – even though they can’t yet answer you, it develops their listening and teaches them turn-taking and the rhythms of language. Use a high-pitched, singsong voice to catch their attention, play with sounds (e.g. using rhymes or reduplications like ‘tum-tum’) and use simple sentences – research has shown that infants prefer being talked to in this way than being talked to in regular ‘adult’ English (Fernald, 1985).

If you’re finding it difficult to think of things to say, describe your actions as you dress, feed, and bathe the child, or read them big, colourful books, talking to them about what is happening in the pictures. Use facial expressions and gestures to help them understand – remember, they don’t yet speak your language! You can also teach them vocabulary by explicitly connecting words to objects and people for them; for example, ask ‘where is your cup?’ and then say ‘here is the cup’, showing them the object.

Did You Know?

At this age, TV will not teach them to speak, even ‘educational’ programmes – research has shown that infants don’t tune in to speech that comes from a machine, and just hear it as noise (Kuhl, 2007). They only tune in to and understand speech coming from a human who is physically with them.

Model things that you want them to learn

For example, show them how to clap or turn the pages of books, or pass objects from one hand to the other when they are watching. You’ll find that they eventually copy you.

Give them lots of opportunities to play

In the early years, playing is the main way that children learn and develop. Give them toys that they can play with on their own, so that they can explore and experiment – rattles are great early toys, but you can even make a toy out of a crinkly blanket for them to kick off their legs.

As their dexterity improves, let them build towers or stack rings to improve their hand-eye coordination. It is also important to play with them sometimes; doing so shows the child that they are important to you, and helps build your relationship. When they are a young infant, blowing raspberries can be a good game, and for 6-9 month-olds, games like Peek-a-Boo can improve their memory and concentration.

Reward and reassure

Remember that even squeezing a squeaky toy or shaking a rattle takes a lot of effort for a baby – reward them with praise (both words and cuddles). When they are unsure about something, such as being around strangers, reassure them by being relaxed and talking to the stranger in front of them. It’s important for babies to feel safe and secure, and have enough reassurance.

Encourage cognitive development

If they continually drop objects, keep picking them up – they are learning about cause and effect! Encourage them spending lots of time on a task, which helps to build their concentration – this will help them in the future.

Continue having predictable routines

Routines make your child feel secure – have a set bedtime and time that you get up in the morning, as well as mealtimes. It also helps to carry out your morning tasks in the same order; for example, getting up, getting dressed, having breakfast, and brushing your teeth. It is good for them to include tidying away their toys as part of their routine – tidying can help with mathematical ordering skills. You could present this as a challenge, such as ‘I bet you can’t tidy away all your toys in 1 minute’.

Read to them every night

Reading to your child – and talking about the book with them as you go along – is one of the best ways to teach vocabulary. It also helps them to connect sounds to written words (which supports learning to read and write), enhances their creativity, and improves their cognitive development and literacy, leading to greater achievement in school later on. See our dedicated Hub article about reading to children for more information.

Limit TV time

At this stage, children might start to watch TV. A maximum of half an hour or an hour per day is fine, but even during this time, it’s most helpful if you sit with your toddler and talk about what you’re watching. This gives them an opportunity to develop their language, since research has shown that children cannot learn language effectively from watching television alone (O’Doherty et al., 2011). In fact, the more hours children spend watching television, the less they will develop their language skills, because they are spending less time interacting with people (Zimmerman, Christakis & Meltzoff, 2007).

Children do find electronic display screens extremely attractive, and it is easy for them to become engrossed in them – just take care not to give them this opportunity too often.

Respond to their emotions with calmness

Toddlers are at the stage where they may become overwhelmed with emotion and have tantrums, but remember that you are a model for their behaviour – don’t lose control in response. Instead, reassure them, tell them you understand how they’re feeling, and when they have calmed down, try to talk about why they felt that way. You could use this a learning opportunity for the future; for example, if they became upset about having to share a toy with another child, explain why we sometimes have to share, and praise future good behaviour. Children benefit from these sorts of clear explanations about what to do and what not to do. Additionally, helping them to solve their problems supports their cognitive development.

Let them have some independence

Be patient with them dressing and undressing themselves, even if it takes a long time, buy clothes that are easy to fasten, and let them choose what they want to wear each day. Don’t direct them when they are playing, but provide them with props (for example, an old phone so that they can pretend to phone you, or a pretend ‘shop’, or dressing up clothes). You can join in if they ask you to! Other ideas include giving them their own little bag to carry something in when you go shopping, or letting them help get lunch ready and share out portions – both of which also help with their physical development.

Let them openly express all their feelings

While children might cry when it seems unnecessary, they need to feel safe, secure, and reassured by you. Never shame them or tell them to be brave or not to cry – just provide support. This includes times when they are scared that there are monsters under the bed; children are very imaginative at this age, and need to be told that monsters don’t exist!

Help them become more social

Practise understanding social rules at home (for example, having conversations without interrupting) – stay relaxed and praise them for doing well. When they do make friends, show how pleased you are, and ask questions about their friends. Encourage them joining in with small group games.

Keep encouraging development in every domain

Continue to read to them daily – you could also help them to re-tell stories using props to improve their memory. Encourage mark-making on pieces of paper, and help them to sort objects into categories (for example, shape) for their cognitive development. You could also play memory games; talking about what you did last week is a good test of their memory, as well as asking them questions such as ‘what do I need to cut an apple with?’ or ‘what do I pour your milk into?’.

Give them simple chores to do

This boosts children’s self-confidence, even if the task is relatively small, such as pairing socks. When asking them to do chores or tidying, make sure you give them simple instructions, such as ‘put your shoes in the basket’.

Help them to understand the wider world

Taking them out for walks, to the library, or to look at the fire station or police station teaches them more about life going on around them. This enhances their cognitive development.

Provide learning materials, but don’t pressurise

Give them books to look at, paper to make marks on with lots of interesting materials, and point out words on labels, TV, or books. However, try not to pressurise them into learning to read and write until they are ready to.

Be active together

Now that they can move around more, do physical exercise together – go swimming, play football, dance, or go to the park.

Remain relaxed when talking about going to school

Explain what happens at school and when they’ll go, but ensure that children think of it as a positive experience.

Enhance their understanding of language

You could play rhyming games, asking them which words rhyme with ‘cat’. Ask them to come up with words that begin with the same letter to boost their awareness of letters. Play ‘I spy’ and other games that will increase their vocabulary, or when you’re sharing a story together, ask them why they think something has happened or what might happen next.

Continue to play

Since play is the main way that children learn and develop during their early years, it is important for them to have plenty of opportunities to do so, even when they are at school. Teachers should try to incorporate as much play and active learning as they can, in order to make learning effective.

Remember that children behave differently at school or playgroup than they do at home

Teachers and childcare workers should talk to children’s families first about any developmental concerns they have, because the family might confirm that the child has actually met their developmental milestones at home. They simply may not feel comfortable enough at school to show this.