Strengthening Parent-Child Bonds with Baby Massage at Babyzone

Spotlight 🌟

Baby Massage at Babyzone: Strengthening Parent-Child Bonds

At Babyzone, we provide a wide range of evidence-informed classes designed to support families in the vital early years. Among them is Baby Massage, delivered across our Babyzones. In Barking and Dagenham, baby massage is led by Nassaba Guiba - see the link below to watch her interview and hear her talk about the importance of what she does.

Baby Massage is far more than a calming activity. For babies, it supports mobility, flexibility and circulation, while creating playful and soothing moments of connection. For parents, it offers something equally important: protected time to bond, to practise breathing and posture, and to focus completely on their child. In a busy world, these classes create a pause for closeness, reminding us that connection and care are at the heart of healthy development.

This approach reflects the lifelong importance of the early years, a message championed by Dame Andrea Leadsom. As she has explained, “A baby’s experiences in those first 1,001 days are vital to shaping his or her lifelong emotional and physical health… connections in the brain are created at a rate of a million per second.” She has also stressed the impact of loving interaction, saying, “Mum saying, ‘Oh, darling, I love you,’ and singing baby songs and pulling faces literally stimulates the synapses in the brain.”

The message is clear: warm, responsive interactions with babies are essential for their emotional security and long-term wellbeing. Baby Massage, with its gentle touch and shared calm, is a simple but powerful way to nurture those bonds.

At Babyzone, Baby Massage is one of many classes that help families thrive. By creating space for joy, learning and connection in the earliest days, we join a national movement working to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life.

Watch Nassaba’s interview to see how Babyzone helps parents and babies build stronger bonds.

Behind the Headlines 📰

Education Committee launches new inquiry into early years sector

The Education Committee is investigating whether recent government reforms and the Best Start in Life strategy are effective in supporting early childhood development, inclusion, and access to services, especially in childcare deserts and for children with SEND.

The inquiry invites expert evidence and targets the goal of 75% of children meeting development benchmarks by 2028. This is crucial for policymakers, practitioners, and advocates concerned with equitable, high-quality early years provision.

Downturn in post-pandemic school readiness reported by trust leaders

School readiness has markedly declined post-pandemic, with 70% of surveyed trust leaders expressing neutral confidence in new government initiatives to support disadvantaged families, and 69% citing staff recruitment and retention as major obstacles. School-based nurseries are seen as most effective, yet funding and capacity remain serious hurdles.

Early years provision: expanding through a school-PVI partnership

Primary and infant schools partnering with PVI providers expanded early years provision, responding to strong local demand and supporting children from as young as 9 months. These collaborations ensured high-quality care, continuity of education, and robust community engagement—offering practical guidance for schools seeking to replicate this success.

Research & Insights 🔬

Creative thinking helps fund early childhood education

By framing early childhood education funding as a long-term workforce investment, the Alexandria Rotary Club leveraged a matching grant to turn $500,000 in community donations into $2 million for local scholarships. This approach demonstrates how evidencing concrete returns can galvanise donor support, offering a replicable model for sustainable early years funding.

Early robotics education is key to igniting STEM passions

Early robotics education demonstrably enhances critical thinking, collaboration, and STEM engagement, especially when implemented from the earliest school years. Integrating hands-on robotics activities with core curriculum improves student outcomes and addresses barriers to STEM access for underserved groups. Scalable, cost-effective robotics programmes support lasting positive academic and career development.

Global Perspectives 🌎

Global child development: Vanderbilt professor Jonathan Seiden’s research balances universal norms and local contexts

Jonathan Seiden’s research at Vanderbilt focuses on developing reliable, globally applicable tools for measuring early child development, enabling policymakers to compare outcomes across diverse contexts and identify areas needing intervention. His studies reveal a critical gap in nurturing care for preschool-aged children in low- and middle-income countries, emphasising the necessity of integrated, multisector investments. These findings offer actionable insights for governments and organisations determined to improve early childhood health, learning, and wellbeing.