Imagination Development

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We are born curious. Imagination feeds social, emotional, creative, physical and problem-solving development so it is really important that we create environments that encourage curiosity and imagination as early as possible. Let them wonder…

 

Between birth and 12 months, babies will start to develop fascination with the world around them. As their imagination

develops, they start to experiment with new sounds, sights, objects and activities. They also learn to solve simple problems, understand their own and other people’s feelings and gain confidence to keep exploring everything around them.

 

During this stage, your baby is likely to:

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• develop a fascination with you, themselves and others around them – they’ll love looking at themselves in mirrors and watch their expressions change (even though they don’t have a sense of self as yet, this comes later)

• enjoy looking at pictures in books as they start to make connections with things they can relate to, such as a father in a story could be their father

• want to crawl around and look into cupboards, under beds and anywhere else their imagination might take them

• want to touch and taste just about everything from about 5 – 6 months of age

• copy you and others around them

 

Imagination needs space and time for play and, with some simple play techniques, we let imagination boom. We play with simple objects, look at pictures and photos, we read, we sing, we explore the outdoors, we get messy, and we love it.

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Communication Development

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Communication skills involves the development of language, written and verbal communication. Even though a baby won’t say their first meaningful word until they’re about a year old, from birth they start to communicate with you through their cries, facial expressions, body language.

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Communication plays such an important role in our lives. It is the cornerstone of healthy relationships and is the tool we need to share our emotions, our joys, fears and experiences. Great communicators have highly developed skills that allow them to articulate their thoughts and feelings really well. It is a skill that should start to develop in a child’s earliest years.

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Language development happens in the same order in most children, but some might learn quickly and others might need a bit more time.

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During this stage, your baby is likely to:

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• make eye contact, cry, coo and smile by 3 months

• turn their head to a sound, show interest in faces and respond to a sound or voice

       by 3 months

• start using consonant sounds like ‘da,da,da’ and start babbling by 6 months

• imitate sounds and look at familiar objects and people when they hear the name

       or word by 9 months

• say simple words like ‘mama’ or 'dada’ by 12 months

• use 5 – 10 words by 15 months

• respond to questions and repeat words they have overheard by 18 months

• use about 50 words by 21 months

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To support a baby’s communication development, we talk, listen, respond, share and

express actions and emotions through some wonderful play techniques. Reading should

start as early as possible - even though a baby won’t understand the content of what is

being read, they are absorbing sounds, tone and meaning which all help develop speech

patterns in a baby’s brain.

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We also use narration to connect words with objects and actions. We talk as we’re doing something, like ‘let’s get this paint off your hands, we’re off to the sink now’. We use pretend play so a child can freely express themselves as they act out different characters and roles. We lead by example, we show others respect and we treat everyone with dignity to demonstrate proper behaviours.

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Cognitive Development​

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Cognitive development refers to the way a baby learns to think, remember, imagine, gather and organise information, solve problems and develop judgement. Cognitive development provides children with the means of paying attention to thinking about the world around them. It sounds like a lot, but it all happens gradually.

 

Before the age of 3, a child’s brain makes 700 to 1,000 neural connections every second! But, as we get older, our brain’s ability to adapt to change reduces, making the first few years of a child’s life critical to their overall development and success in the future.

 

Cognitive development refers to the processes that control:

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• Logic and reasoning

• Memory and working memory

• Attention

• Control

• Flexibility, ability to adapt

• Evaluation and analysing skills

• Ability to make comparisons

• Explore and understand cause and effect

• Critical thinking, higher level thinking

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During this stage, your baby is likely to:

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• pay attention to faces, start to follow things with their eyes and recognise people at a distance from 2 months

• look around, put things in their mouth, show curiosity from 6 months

• start to shake, bang and throw from 12 months

• find hidden things, look at pictures, copy gestures, poke with their finger and follow simple instructions from 12 months

• scribble on their own, follow one-step verbal commands without gestures from 18 months

• know ordinary things such as a spoon, a phone and a book from 18 months

• begin to sort shapes, build towers and blocks and complete sentences in familiar books from 24 months

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It is crucial to shape a child’s cognitive development in the right way and to foster it as early as possible so we can lay the foundation for their success in school and later in life.

 
To promote a child's cognitive development, we:

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• Talk to our babies

• Let them explore toys and move about

• Sing and read

• Share books and puzzles

• Encourage them to explore and expand their interests

• Explore problem-solving and let them work things out on their own

• Provide them with choices and prompt thoughtful decisions