My first moments

As your child explores books for the first time, this personalised story helps her to understand how deeply loved she is at an age when she is starting to see herself as separate from mum and dad. After birth, a baby has as many brain nerve cells as there are stars in our galaxy. Pathways run between these cells like highways. Any information received is like a car that travels along them. Those that experience the most traffic grow larger, and busier roads lead to a higher level of skill in that area later. Holding your baby at the same time makes her brain develop better ’highways’. Language is one of the most important ways to build pathways. It might even make baby a happier child and adult, according to many studies by the Mayo Clinic. Babies don’t respond to simply listening to people talk to each other. It’s only when they’re spoken or read to that these highways become busy. Many moms don’t read to their children because they believe they don’t understand the words but when babies and children under six years old are read a story, their brains are developing more language skills than they’ll pick up for the rest of their lives. (Hart & Risley, 1995)