- Ensure that from birth onwards babies have frequent unrestricted opportunities for moving and being active throughout the time that they are awake.
- Take babies outdoors as much as possible, paying attention to their responses to sensory stimulations such as smells, changing light and moving air.
- Give babies lots of time being touched and held, moving around the environment as well as being still.
- Very young babies may enjoy resting on your shoulder or lying on your front looking into your face.
- Before babies are able to roll themselves onto their tummy, put them onto their back for floor time and allow rolling to slowly develop.
- Share with parents the developmental value of ample time spent on the tummy and back, and the ways this can be supported to gradually develop, so that it is always pleasurable for the baby.
- Help babies to become aware of their own bodies through touch and movement.
- Whilst ensuring that babies are warm enough, give them plenty of floor time with non-restricting clothing and bare feet.
- Make the most of each stage of development and support the baby to get all of its developmental benefits: for example, time on the side is an important step in neurological development and needs lots of practice.
- Talk and sing to babies while they are on the floor or ground: they will benefit more from action around them in the room and garden than from a baby gym.
- Tune into how individual babies communicate through movement and body language.
- Play games, such as offering a small toy and taking it again to rattle, or sail through the air.
- Encourage young babies in their efforts to gradually share control of the bottle with you.
- Copy babies’ movements and encourage taking turns.
