How to develop your child’s communication skills

Written by Kate Burgess, Speech and Language Therapist. Language and Communication development in children is a phenomenal process. Babies go from having an instinctive, reactive cry to being able to use hundreds of words in short phrases by the time they are three years old. And it continues to grow and develop well into primary school and beyond.

For some children, this process happens smoothly without parents and carers feeling like they’re doing anything ‘extra’ or ‘special’. Just chatting along to your child, reading books, singing songs and hey presto! Language is developing.

Working out childcare during the holidays!

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. The first and most important thing to say here is that preparation is key! Think ahead and have a plan of the weeks that you are looking to cover with childcare. Having a calendar is essential to provide a visual outline to see when and where you will need cover and have it available either online or somewhere visible for all family members to be able to refer to it if needed!

Building healthy habits for homework!

Written by Katie Crouch, Senior Lecturer, Researcher and Consultant in the Early Years. Due to Covid and subsequent home-schooling, we have all become aware of the pressures faced by families when trying to support learning in the home. Now that schooling and home learning are becoming separate entities again, we look at how we can build healthy routines and home learning habits.

How can we as adults help our children to develop a love of learning outside of the school environment? In fact, the learning which takes place outside of the school can often hold a deeper sense of meaning and understanding for many of our children and this leads to question why this could be the case?

In my experience, it is down to just a couple of simple factors;

Learning away from school can have fewer boundaries, such as time constraints.
Children are also more likely to feel emotionally safer with their significant adults and fewer opportunities for self-comparison with peers.

In this blog I will look at how we can maximise children’s learning potential within these circumstances.

How do I help my baby / child with jet lag?

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. When planning a holiday abroad we often have to consider jet lag and how this might affect our children. For some families the idea of jet lagged children can put them off wanting to travel at all, but try to not let it put you off as there are a few things you can do to help!

How To Improve Your Everyday Life!

By Holly Dodd. My name’s Holly I have a passion for writing content based on my personal life as well as what’s going on in the world around me as I believe it can bring different insights into my readers’ lives. This article was inspired by my past grandparents, I believe it’s so important to spend time with your elders and try to gain as much knowledge as you can from them. They have lived a life full of problems they’ve had to face, meaning they have got experience with issues you might be facing at this moment in time. They didn’t have access to the internet or advanced technologies they had to figure out how to navigate their own lives, allowing them to understand what a good decision looks like.

It’s a well-known fact that some of the best advice you can receive comes from those who have been around long before us. Every generation has its own unique set of experiences and knowledge to offer, and it’s important to take note of these lessons and strive to pass them on to your younger family members and friends. That’s why in this blog, I’m going to be exploring some of the pieces of advice that should be passed down from generation to generation.

How to inspire your child to read and write more

By The Golden Circle. Reading and writing skills provide the foundation to succeeding in many aspects of life, both academic and personal. For some children, getting lost in the adventure of a book, or putting their imaginative thoughts on paper comes naturally. For others, developing this skill set can be a challenge and require a little extra encouragement. If your child falls into this category, here are some handy strategies from The Golden Circle’s team of qualified teachers to help make reading and writing a more enjoyable activity.

Just like adults, not all children are affectionate (when I say affectionate, I mean cuddly as this is what most people see as a sign of affection from children). When a child is not showing affection (in the way we expect as an adult) it can be due to their personality but also where they are in their developmental stage.

Tricky friendships…what can I do to help my child?

By Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Friendships and social interactions are a key part of our children’s lives. Friendships help our children learn about the way that we interact with peers, social cues and norms (which can be different with peers than with adults), and gaining a sense of belonging away from their family unit.

It is all very normal and natural for friendships to have their highs and lows but this can be extremely hard for a parent to watch if their child is having a difficult time. We all want our children to be happy and have friends, but this can take time to establish and there can be some very tricky moments.

Gender and sexuality 🌈 - Let's talk about it!

By Amy Frankcom, Teen blogger. Gender and sexuality can be extremely confusing for some, especially for those who were not raised with a high level of acceptance and understanding of the topic. It’s difficult to navigate and varies for every person; there is no concrete answer because of the fluid nature of gender and sexuality. Due to this, people are always concerned about getting it wrong, and choose to ignore the subject rather than exploring it with others and sometimes ‘messing up’. However, here’s the fact: gender and sexuality is a beautiful thing, encompassing myriads of diversity from all corners of the world. It deserves to be celebrated!

Why doesn’t my child show much affection?

By Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. It is important to start with looking at what you, as an individual, see as ‘showing affection’ as this can be very different for each of us. As human beings we all feel and show affection in different ways, while one person might be very tactile and love cuddles, another might avoid this where possible as it makes them uncomfortable.

Just like adults, not all children are affectionate (when I say affectionate, I mean cuddly as this is what most people see as a sign of affection from children). When a child is not showing affection (in the way we expect as an adult) it can be due to their personality but also where they are in their developmental stage.

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