In the first few months following birth, your baby is experiencing the world through its senses, and it is those experiences that help form connections inside the brain and these connections that shape the individual mind of your baby.  At birth, a baby is barely able to see but they have an acute sense of smell.  At three days old they can recognise the smell of their mother's breast milk and the odour of their parents, yet they can still see only centimetres in front of them.  They have an innate ability to recognise faces and are attracted to faces close by.

By three months their brains have developed considerably and they are able to control themselves better - they can choose where to look rather than being fixated on moving objects nearby.  They might move their arms and legs seemingly randomly, but this is helping them to build up muscles, an essential component on the way to being able to roll, crawl and later walk.  This movement allows them to interact with their physical surroundings and this intensifies the rate at which the brain develops as it is exposed to new experiences.  Research shows that babies who are denied the opportunity to interact physically with their surroundings develop at a slower rate so it is particularly important to work with babies suffering physical or mental disability to ensure that they can develop as best they can.

Interacting with your baby is especially important even during these early months - try to spend time with your newborn baby stimulating them.  Stimulate their vision by exposing them to high contrast patterns and making movement in front of them; stimulate their hearing by playing background sounds and music, and rattling toys in front of them.  Stimulate their sense of feel by touching stroking them and letting them hold your fingers and baby toys.

It would be easy to ignore your newborn baby and leave them lying in another room for their first few months while you get on with the chores you have to do, but the more time you can spend with your baby, the more rewarding for both you and your little one!

Don't forget that here at ToucanLearn we have activities suitable from birth onwards.  Our early activities are simple and aimed at helping to stimulate early development in your child.  All our activities link into the Early Years Foundation Stage Areas of Learning and Development, so you can monitor that you are giving your baby a broad range of activities even at this early stage.

ToucanLearn has just got better - all our activities now link to the Early Year Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning! Over the last few months we've been working to tie in our activities to the government's curriculum for preschool children (from birth to 5 years).  There are six areas of learning, each broken down into different focal points, click here to read more specific information on each of the areas and their constituent parts.

Our EYFS information is only available to PREMIUM Members - but annual PREMIUM membership costs less than a pizza! PREMIUM Members are able to search for activities with a focus on each of the six areas of learning, making planning really easy.  Record your activitiy in your blog and over time you will see which areas you have covered and in how much depth.

Whilst EYFS is of primary interest for childminders, carers and nannies, the easy way in which ToucanLearn presents this information makes it easy for parents to follow a government led learning path without having to invest time in understanding the wider EYFS programme.

This is the first in a series of new features coming over the next few months, so watch out for our further announcements!!