Best Beginnings

The Interaction Engine: How Babies Communicate Before Language | Professor Paul Seedhouse

Before a baby says their first word, they have already been communicating for weeks. Tracking faces, directing gaze, passing objects back and forth and waiting to see what happens next. These are not random behaviours. They are the foundations of everything language will become. Professor Paul Seedhouse is Emeritus Professor of Human Spoken Interaction at Newcastle University and one of the world's leading experts on the interaction engine: the universal communication system every human is born with that predates spoken language by almost 2 million years. In this episode Paul joins George to talk about what the interaction engine is, why every child must develop it before language can follow and what happens when they don't. They also discuss turn taking, screen time, the role of siblings and why the earliest interactions between a parent and their baby matter more than most people realise. Best Beginnings is a podcast from Babyzone about the first five years of life and why they shape everything that comes after. New episodes every Tuesday.

Sophie Livingstone MBE: What Families in Poverty Really Need

Sophie Livingstone MBE, CEO of Little Village and Chair of the Baby Bank Alliance, joins George Looker to talk about what essential items really mean for families experiencing poverty. From slings to high chairs, Sophie explains how practical support changes lives, why dignity is central to everything Little Village does, and what it means to design early intervention around families rather than systems. Sophie also reflects on the stigma around child poverty, the collective responsibility we all share for children's futures and what it would take to put Little Village out of business.

"You're Doing Better Than You Think" | Dr Martha on Parenting, Psychology and the Early Years

Most parents questioning whether they are getting it right are already doing well enough. That is not reassurance. That is what the science shows. Dr Martha is a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with children and families. She trained at UCL and the Tavistock, spent 18 years in the NHS and has built an Instagram community of over 290,000 people. Her Sunday Times number one bestselling book is How to Be the Grown Up. In this episode we talk about what babies actually need when they cry, why you only need to be attuned to your child 30 to 50% of the time, how to handle tantrums in public, why your love does not get halved when a second child arrives, why it is never too late to repair your relationship with your child and what she would do if she had a magic wand for parenting policy. Best Beginnings is the podcast from Babyzone, the early years charity supporting families from pregnancy to five. Subscribe for weekly conversations with the researchers, practitioners and policymakers thinking most deeply about how to give every child the best start.

The Screen Time Truth Every Parent Needs to Hear | Professor Sam Wass

What is fast-paced screen content actually doing to your child's brain? And why does every parent recognise the mood their child comes off a screen in? Professor Sam Wass is Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of East London, leader of the Baby Dev Lab, and one of the psychologists from Channel 4's multi-award winning series The Secret Life of 4 and 5 Year Olds. In this episode we talk about why fast-paced content puts children into fight or flight mode, why using screens to calm toddler tantrums can make behaviour worse over time, what your phone is doing to your child's sense of security without you realising and why the thing most parents believe helps children learn is actually the opposite of what the neuroscience is telling us. Best Beginnings is the podcast from Babyzone about what happens in the first five years of life and why it shapes everything that comes after. Subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Financial Insecurity Is an Early Years Crisis, with Alex Christopoulos, Aviva Foundation Lead

What does money have to do with how a child develops? Everything, argues Alex Christopoulos, Director of the Aviva Foundation. In this episode, Alex joins George to explore how financial insecurity shapes the environment children grow up in, affecting parental stress, presence and responsiveness in ways that directly impact early development. Alex draws on his background in international children's rights and his work co-authoring a Lancet Commission on deinstitutionalization to make the case that the early years and financial sectors need each other and that the UK consistently underinvests in prevention.  He also shares what the Aviva Foundation is doing differently, how the Royal Foundation's Early Childhood Business Taskforce is changing employer behaviour and what the Babyzone and Baby Buddy partnership means for families navigating financial pressure right now.