The survey launched by the Duchess of Cambridge has been designed to provide evidence on how the nation thinks about early years and to what extent early brain development is understood by the general public. A similar, albeit much smaller opinion survey undertaken by What About The Children? in 2018, found that public understanding about…
The positive effects of free early years education from the age of three are many; however, to apply the same rule of thumb to babies of nine months is misguided and not based on the evidence on early brain development. In the first years of life, from conception to age three, the brain is growing…
It’s concerning how, with increasing regularity, print and broadcast media calls for special sympathy and understanding for one particular group in society … PARENTS! Yet parenthood is a ‘natural’ role and doesn’t happen by fiat. As never before in history has ‘parenting by choice’ been more available. However, notwithstanding that most parents have opted for…
“A Mother’s Instinct” was the theme of the previous blog, but what do we understand by ‘maternal ‘instinct’? Maternal instinct is evident in animals, for example a zebra whose infant had died at birth observed trying to steal another zebra’s foal, so intense was her grief and inability to understand what had happened to her…
Since becoming pregnant with Poppy I had so much advice given, but the most important guide for me was to follow my instincts. I would think, ‘But how will I know?’ However, as soon as I gave birth to this tiny little baby, the one thing I remember the most was that all my senses…
Today, July 18th 2019, the newspapers, and the media in general, are leading on children’s mental wellbeing, or rather lack of it. Again. This time the statistics are telling us that there has been an almost 50% increase over the last 3 years in mental health referrals by primary schools. Primary Schools! It would be…