Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

vo i ce, i n d i cators of emotion, d u ring theirfirst year of life (Nelson 1987 ). Ta s te andsmell do be come more refined but smell isa c u te enough at birth to mean that a babycan identify his mother’s milk when thre ed ays old (Ho f fer 1975) and pare nt s’ n at u ra lodours be come pre fe rred to others. Du ri n gthese earliest weeks babies are inte n s e lyi nte re s ted in what or who is around thembut they cannot re m ove their at te nt i o nwithout the help of an adult – once loc ke do nto a face or an object, t h ey remain fixe du pon that. By three or four months old,h oweve r, t h ey begin to be able to havem o re co nt ro l ,their brains have deve l o pe d,co n n e cted up enough to enable them toc h oose what to look at – or not. This shiftf rom re f l ex - l i ke be h aviour to vo l u nt a rya ctions is linked to the deve l o p m e nt ofthe area of the brain called the ce re b ra lco rtex . Having ex pe ri e n ces is essentialto brain deve l o p m e nt – and bra i nd eve l o p m e nt is essential to taki n ga dva ntage of those ex pe ri e n ce s.‘Between brain and behaviour, the baby isprogressively building up what are called‘mental representations’. This complexprocess gradually turns a brain into anindividual mind.’ (Karmiloff-Smith1994:48).Human babies are helpless for a very longperiod compared with other animals, butit is this that allows for the extensiveplasticity of the brain,equipping them toreorganise, adapt and learn from others.Babies’ arm and leg movements, whenthey are lying on their backs, althoughseemingly random,are a way of practising,strengthening muscles. The first physicalmilestone is probably being able to holdup and move one’s own head. This may befollowed by rolling, sitting alone, crawling,standing, and finally walking, after aperiod of mobility made possible byholding on to people and furniture. Witheach new ability, the baby sees its worldin a new and different way. Again,theseexperiences are important not just forgaining physical control and developingcoordination, they actually affect brain‘wiring’ and this again in turn influenceswhat the baby can do physically. By beingallowed to explore through movement,babies ‘map’ their spatial surroundings,making mental images of a place, feelingsecure when they know the location oftheir parent or familiar carer within that‘map’. So it is important to ensure thatchildren who have movement difficultiesare enabled to explore through whatevermeans are available to them. Further it isimportant to note that infants who havea restricted ability to move independently,either physically due to, for example,cerebral palsy or motivationally throughsomething like Down’s syndrome, maydevelop perceptual difficulties which latereffect educational progress, particularlyin reading or maths ( Wilson 1998). Babiesand young children need to move notonly to gain knowledge about theirenvironment and become oriented, butalso to gain knowledge about theirown abilities and to enjoy the feeling ofindependence. Further, movement itselfhas its own rewards (Davies 2002). Parentsand carers can help children gain a sense124 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S