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Talking and listening to your child

The quickest development of your child's brain takes place between their birth and the age of two. Your child continues to learn and develop rapidly during the important early years of their life.

By building a few simple learning games into your child's daily routines and helping them investigate their environment, you can help give them the best possible start to their education.

You help your child to learn by giving them opportunities to:

• Talk To Your Baby campaign: information and advice Opens new window

Reading together

Everywhere you go with your child you have a chance to read together. Whether it's on the bus, in shops or at the post office, you can point out the words around you and that's the beginning of reading. Reading stories with your child, even if for just 10 minutes a day, will help to build important skills, as well as capture your child's interest in books.

• Developing reading and writing skills for under fives

• Advice on choosing children's books from the Booktrust website Opens new window

Learning about numbers and shapes

Counting things and noticing shapes come naturally to children, so you can use your child's interest in these activities to help with maths. Maths skills can be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play. Even helping in everyday tasks like telling time or measuring ingredients for cooking, gives children the chance to learn new maths skills.

Spending quality time together

Turning off the television or computer and spending time with your child creates valuable opportunities for learning. Here are a few ideas about activities that your child can learn from:

More useful links

• Schools, learning and development

• Caring for a disabled child (caring for someone section)

Useful contacts

• Parents contacts