Nursery World - Baby rooms - Still room for improvement?

Good practice begins with babies, but nurseries have historically focused more on older children. Three years on from the Baby Room
Project, Hannah Crown asks if anything has changed.

Babies' brains are developmental 'rocket science'. Alison Gopnik describes babies as 'true scientists, constantly conducting experiments, testing their ideas, and building understanding'. The professor of psychology at the University of California is joined in her praise of babies by Patricia Kuhl, from the University of Washington, who says 'there's rocket science going on' in babies' brains and calls all children potential 'geniuses' at acquiring language until they turn seven. Physically, also, babies have a biological drive to use their bodies, often setting their own challenges to overcome, just as athletes do.

Yet when it comes to hot topics in childcare, babies aren't high on the list. Conferences, training sessions and reams of literature are focused on improving the care of two-year-olds, and especially disadvantaged children.

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