A discussion with Gill Goodliff: Parent, grandparent, retired senior lecturer in early childhood from the Open University and now volunteer at HomeStart. Written by Alice Chilver, CEO of WHEN, with thanks to Gill and local mothers in Bicester who took part in the discussion.
I met Gill, whilst she was volunteering at a ‘Stay and Play’ session at my local community hall, I was attending for the first time with my 6-month-old baby. It was lovely to chat to her and I remember in particular enjoying the fact that she was a retired academic, and so we could briefly share our experiences of working in higher education. I was really interested in the importance of inter-generational relationships and early baby development that we discussed. Several weeks later, getting by at home, in lockdown in the midst of the global pandemic, I remembered Gill. I managed to track her down and she agreed to join a Zoom call with me and some local mums, so that we could talk more about baby development during lockdown. I thought it might be helpful to share some of the key messages and ideas that came from this discussion.
Firstly, it’s important to acknowledge that these are unprecedented times, none of us have lived through anything like this, so let’s try our best to navigate together.
Three tips to support baby development
Having fun to support baby development
Tried and tested ways, for providing a home learning environment
Let’s talk about screen-time!
Nine things to consider:
1. It can reduce the amount of time that a child has to be active.
2. It has been associated with excessive weight gain.
Will my baby be afraid of strangers after lockdown?
Your baby is living in the present, the reassurance that you are able to give your baby is supporting them through this difficult time. It is perhaps harder, thinking about how much we are impacted and how that affects our wellbeing and how we communicate our own anxieties. Try to maintain interest in people who have been significant in the babies lives up until now, through phone calls, looking at photos, talking to the baby about them.
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