Development
Newborn Reflexes: A Developmental Timeline From Birth to Integration
A baby's first reflexes are not personality. They are the brainstem doing its job before the cortex is ready. Stroke a newborn's cheek and they root t...
6 min read
Development
Understanding your child's developmental stages and what to expect.
Development
How Newborns See and Hear: Sensory Abilities in the First Weeks
What does a newborn actually perceive? For decades the assumption was: not much. William James called the infant world "one great blooming, buzzing co...
8 min read
Development
How a Newborn's Brain Develops in the First Year
The transformation of an infant brain in the first 12 months is genuinely staggering. The brain a baby is born with — already containing nearly all th...
7 min read
Development
Raising Multilingual Children: Language Development in Bilingual Families
Almost every bilingual family hears some version of the same warnings. The grandmother who suggests sticking to English so the child won't get confuse...
6 min read
Development
How Memory Develops in Infants and Toddlers
Parents ask the same questions in slightly different forms: does my baby remember me when I'm at work? Will she remember her first birthday? Why does...
6 min read
Development
Tracking Your Baby's Development: How to Read Milestones Without Anxiety
Milestone charts are probably the most googled thing in early parenthood, and the most reliable source of unnecessary worry. Half the babies in any ch...
5 min read
Development
Language Development in the First Year: From Cooing to First Words
A newborn produces nothing but cries and hiccups. Twelve months later, the same person is waving, pointing, saying "dada" with intent and possibly say...
8 min read
Development
The Language Explosion: How Toddler Vocabulary Grows So Fast
A child who has been pottering along with five or six words for months suddenly arrives downstairs one Tuesday and names the dog, the toast, and the b...
8 min read
Development
Imitation and Learning in Babies: How Copying Others Drives Development
Long before your baby can ask a question, she is learning by watching. She turns her head when you turn yours, opens her mouth when you yawn, makes a...
6 min read
Development
Imaginary Friends in Early Childhood: What They Reveal About Development
The 4-year-old who insists you save a seat at dinner for a small green dragon named Bramble — who has firm opinions about broccoli and is afraid of th...
5 min read
Development
Left or Right? How Handedness Develops in Young Children
Most parents notice their toddler starting to favour one hand, sometimes as early as 18 months to two years, and wonder whether this is significant or...
4 min read
Development
Hand-Eye Coordination in Babies and Toddlers: How It Develops and How to Support It
From the moment a baby first reaches out and grasps a finger, the development of hand-eye coordination is underway. This progressive mastery — the abi...
3 min read
Development
Growth Mindset in Young Children: What It Is and How to Nurture It
Carol Dweck spent decades studying why some children and adults respond to challenge and failure with greater persistence and resilience than others....
5 min read
Development
Gross Motor Development: Key Milestones from Birth to Three Years
The first time a baby lifts their head, then pushes up on their hands, then rolls over, then sits independently, then pulls to stand — each step in th...
5 min read
Development
Gross Motor Development in Children Under Three: How Movement Develops
From the newborn whose movements are almost entirely reflexive to the three-year-old who runs, climbs, jumps, and kicks a ball, the first three years...
4 min read
Development
Gifted Children: What It Actually Means and What They Need
The word "gifted" produces mixed reactions in parents and teachers alike. For some it implies advantage and ease; for others it triggers concern about...
5 min read
Development
Gender Identity and Development in Young Children: What Is Known and What Helps
Questions about gender in young children have become more publicly debated than they were previously, and parents navigating this terrain sometimes fi...
5 min read
Development
First Steps: When Babies Walk, and What's Building Up to It
Few milestones get as much attention from grandparents and WhatsApp groups as the first independent step. The pressure that builds around the 12-month...
7 min read
Development
Fine Motor Development: From the Newborn Fist to the Crayon Grip
Fine motor development is the slow refinement of what the hands can do — from the clenched fist of a newborn to the toddler who can pick a single rais...
6 min read
Development
Executive Function Development in Children: What It Is and How to Support It
Executive function is less well-known than IQ as a predictor of outcomes, but in practical terms it matters at least as much. A child with high IQ and...
6 min read