Baby – 3 months to 2 years

Our aim is to promote and encourage the children to develop in all areas. We do this by providing the children with activities that promote physical, emotional, social, intellectual, vision, fine movement and hearing and speech development.

We encourage sitting skills by using the activity ring and bean bags/pillows to prop-up the baby. This helps to strengthen their back muscles so that eventually they are able to sit up unassisted.

To develop a baby socially we encourage the babies to play together. By doing this on a regular basis it will eventually develop into group play thus achieving our aim of good child interaction skills.

We also aim to develop a good bond between nursery staff and baby and by doing this the child will not feel so unsettled while they are at the nursery. This is achieved by talking, singing and playing with the babies and also spending valuable time with them.

To encourage social development, the children sit in a circle at certain times of the day for ‘milk times’ and group activities. Mealtimes are also spent together in a similar way. Throughout the day children are given opportunities to engage and interact with each other and they usually respond by copying each other’s actions and enjoying the movements together.

During the day we have two rooms set up for the children to play in which gives them constant access to a variety of toys and also the freedom of them choosing who they want to play with and the opportunity also to interact together or play on their own.

At this age the children begin to show affection towards people and toys e.g. giving teddies and dolls kisses and cuddles.

The children have a good understanding of the environment and within the nursery this is stimulated through themed displays and visual aids.

Books are also used to provide the children with the opportunity to learn further as they learn to match the pictures with words and names.

Language development encourages intellectual advancement through speech and we continually promote these skills through the daily routine within the nursery. To develop the children generally, colour and alphabet learning games along with name matching are also practised through play arid also more complex activities are undertaken everyday within the nursery environment.