Nursery World - Training Today: Working with babies to provide close, secure relationships

How can settings equip staff with the skills they need to fulfil the essential and highly skilled role of being a baby room practitioner? By Hannah Crown

Babies require close relationships with their care-givers

Care routines are important for helping babies to establish a sense of themself.

The question to start with is – when do babies start learning? ‘We are operating on the assumption that young children require primarily caretaking and older children need education,’ US child development expert Dan Wuori told the National Literacy Trust conference in March. ‘We want children to come to kindergarten age five ready to learn, as if learning doesn't take place before. We know better than we ever have that that is not the case: learning begins in the womb.’

Scientists have found that foetuses can pick up on smells, tastes and even languages if they are repeated often enough. One study found babies in France aged just a few days old appeared to have been ‘listening’ in the womb, with newborns showing more brain activity hearing stories in their mothers’ native French over other languages.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included