The Early Years Foundation Stage: Setting the Standards for Learning, Development and Care for children from birth to five

• Watch and respond to any attempt by babies to communicate with you, using voice, facial expression or gesture.
• When having a 'conversation', give babies plenty of time to 'reply'.
• When you come into a room, call the baby's name and give them time to respond by stopping and listening, turning towards you or vocalising. Reward them with your attention when they respond.
• Play 'give and take' games where toys or objects are exchanged – ask babies to pass you objects and then give praise when they do so.
• Join in and repeat the games babies 'ask' for.
• Try to focus on the same thing as babies and talk about what they're attending to.
• Look at children when they're talking to you.
• Watch and wait for children to pause and then use the opportunity to comment.
• This is the stage when children start to become wary of strangers and anxious if separated from familiar carers. This is a positive sign that children are developing secure relationships with key adults in their lives. Help children to feel secure with a number of adults by giving them the opportunity to be held and cared for by a number of different people.
• When you leave, tell a child that you're going out but will be back later and give them a warm greeting and hug when you return.
• Wave children's hands for "Bye bye" when someone is leaving the setting and ask the person to wave from a distance as they go out.

Dressing:

• Tell babies that you are about to dress or undress them using words and actions before you start.
• Name body parts, for example, as you gently bend a leg to go into trousers or as you put an arm into a sleeve.
• Sit babies on your knees and use words such as "push" as you put their arm through a sleeve or leg into trousers. Say "pull" when you pull on a hat. They will feel the movement that your body is making and this will help them to understand how they have to move when they begin to take a more active role in dressing.
• When changing nappies, give babies something in their hands to play with, or hang a mobile over the changing surface to discourage rolling.
• Children can usually undress themselves long before they can put clothes on. Encourage them to take part in undressing by partially removing items such as socks so they are just dangling off the toes and supporting them to give the final tug. Give lots of praise and extend this to other simple items such as hats.
• Ask babies to help by saying "Lift your legs" and then lift their legs to indicate what you want them to do. After a while they'll start to react to your instructions.
• Make dressing activities playful, by calling "Boo" up a sleeve to encourage children to put their arm in clothing. Say "Where's that wriggly worm?" as a foot is pushed down into trousers.
• Use a reverse chaining technique to continue work on skills to take clothes off. This means that you do all but the last step to begin with, and expect the children to complete the job. Gradually increase the number of steps they have to do, for example, they have to pull a sock off their toes, and then pull it over their heel. Expect children to do a little more each time. Start with activities that can be done when sitting on a stable base like the floor.

• Watch children and think about how they tell you what they want, for example by cuddling in when they want more cuddles, wriggling their fingers when they want to be picked up and crying to show they are uncomfortable or wet.
• Respond to children's attempts to communicate so they know they have succeeded.
• Put into words what you think children are trying to tell you.
• Play games such as peek-a-boo and recite rhymes such as 'Pat-a-cake' and 'Round and Round the Garden', using associated actions and gestures.
• Play give-and-take games where toys and objects are exchanged.
• Share books to promote shared attention - books help you to know you are focused on the same things as you talk about them.
• Tell children the names of the things and people they see in books and all around them.
• Recast what children are trying to communicate by taking their incomplete utterances and giving them back the language they need. When a child pushes something away you might say "You don't like that, do you?".
• Copy the first attempts at words that children make so that they can see and hear the full version. When a child says "mo" you might say "More? You want more?".

• Watch and interpret children's behaviour and praise word-like sounds.
• Play peek-a-boo and action games to support babies' attention, sometimes over long periods of time. They also help to develop anticipation and offer children many opportunities to imitate and join in, which they will now do increasingly.
• Imitate the noises babies make, such as laughter and other vocalisations.
• Use bubbles to encourage repetition of the 'pop, pop, pop' sound you make as the bubble bursts.
• Don't correct children's attempts at words, but simply repeat what they are trying to say correctly.
• Respond to children's attempts at words by commenting on them, for example, when a child says "dogon", you say "Yes, the dog's gone home. He might come back later".

• Play visual tracking games, such as "Wheeee!" games with aeroplanes, or spoons as they go into mouths. Play with moving toys in front of children to encourage them to follow the movement.
• Provide babies with a range of toys that they can handle in several different ways. Talk about how toys look, feel, smell and taste. This helps babies to begin to compare and notice differences.
• Pull funny faces and comment on the faces babies pull in response.
• Play 'dropping' games, asking "Where's it gone?".
• Use cause and effect toys that have a hidden surprise, such as a Jack-in-the-box. Talk about what babies see using exaggerated intonation and exclamations to reinforce the element of surprise.
• Link actions such as bouncing babies on your knee to nursery rhymes and action rhymes.
• Imitate babies' actions to help them become more aware of the effect of their actions on other people.
• Make the language and actions you use in interactive play very repetitive. This will help babies to develop a sense of the sequence of actions and sounds.
• Begin to push a car, roll or throw a ball, sharing with the babies the pushing, rolling and throwing.
• Introduce variations to games, for example, roll a ball to a doll or another child instead of to the baby.
• Stay close to babies as they play. This gives them the opportunity to explore things for themselves but means you can also show them different ways of playing with a toy.
• Give opportunities for babies to play on their own and to work things out for themselves.
• Continue to use rhymes and songs. Use simple, familiar tunes and words relating to people, objects and actions with which a baby is familiar. Make rhymes and songs more interesting to listen to by using a strong beat, rhythm and lots of repetition.

• Babies love rough and tumble play, such as bouncing, rocking and swinging. Movement through space helps them establish balance and trunk control.
• When babies are lying on their tummies, encourage them to lift their heads and support their trunks on their elbows by talking to them or interesting them with a toy. Use a firm surface to give a good base to push against and support the movement effectively.
• Once babies can sit on your lap with minimal support, sit them on one knee while holding them with both hands around the hips and then lower down. Rock them gently from side to side to help them practise keeping their bodies straight. Do the same thing with them sitting along your thigh facing your other leg and rock them gently forwards and backwards. Gradually increase the size of the rock as their trunk control improves.
• Encourage babies to kick their legs by placing a sound-making toy at the base of their cot or under their legs.
• Many babies enjoy motion in an appropriate swing from the age of about six months.
• Put a few toys like sound balls on a mat with the babies. This encourages them to wriggle and move to pat the toys.
• To encourage rolling, place babies on their sides on a comfortable surface and encourage them to follow your voice, your face or a toy as it moves in the direction you want them to roll. Show them what you want them to do by gently rolling them so that they learn the pattern of movements required. Make sure they're helped and rewarded with a cuddle or the toy to play with. Repeat this with them lying on their back.
• Place babies in a sitting position on a firm surface, propped up with pillows. Show them how to support themselves using their hands and arms as props on the floor in front of them.
• Encourage babies to reach out for a toy or biscuit with one hand while sitting propped.
• Sit on the floor with a baby between your legs. Rock them gently from side to side (maybe singing a 'seesaw' song) and taking their hands to the floor to the side to show them how to save themselves.
• Begin to use action words to relate to body parts and actions. Say "Bend your legs" and "Push your arms". Say these words as you help babies use particular parts of their body, for example, when they're trying to crawl. With regular repetition, children begin to understand.
• Encourage children to begin to move around the room, rolling, bottom shuffling or commando crawling.
• To help with crawling, put babies into a crawling position so that their arms are straight and legs bent. Hold them round the middle and gently rock them from side to side and front to back to give the experience of the movement required and to develop balance.
• Once babies can support their weight on their arms and knees in a crawling position, encourage them to reach out with one hand and then the other. It takes most children several weeks from weight-bearing to mobility. Be aware that some children skip the crawling stage completely!
• Try placing children's legs in a crawling position and put your hands against the bottom of their feet. Their reaction will be to push against your hands and this will result in movement.

Feeding:

• Introduce small amounts of food with a new taste or texture and only increase the amount of food as a child becomes familiar with it.
• Try introducing finger foods by putting flavoured foods such as cream cheese or jam on to babies' fingers. At this stage, everything is taken to the mouth for exploration, so if it tastes good, they'll soon get the message and try other things. Finger foods which dissolve without much chewing can be introduced once solids are established.
• Let babies watch you as you prepare food so that they begin to associate smells, sounds and sights with the food you give them.
• Let babies play with safe kitchen equipment such as pans and spoons.
• When introducing new textures, start with foods you know a child likes. Leave some soft lumps in the food when you mash or purée it or add a few crumbs of food that will absorb the familiar flavour, such as soft grains of rice.
• Name the meals that you have at different points in the day, for example 'lunch' or 'tea' just before you start them.
• Once babies can use a high chair, include them in setting mealtimes. You may need to feed them first, but you can give them some finger foods on their tray so that they're involved in eating at the same time as everyone else. Let them hold a spare spoon while everyone else is eating.
• Encourage as much independence using a bottle as possible. You may, however, need to check the angle to prevent too much air being taken in.

Washing:

• Encourage cooperation in washing hands and faces at various points of the day, such as washing hands before meals and washing faces after eating.
• Give children a cloth to hold and encourage them to use it while you talk about what you're doing.

Changing nappies:

• When changing nappies, tell children when they've passed water or had a bowel motion so that by the time you're toilet training they'll know what you're asking them to do. Use simple words that everyone in your setting is comfortable with.