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.

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.

What if the secret to raising curious, confident children was already in your kitchen cupboard?

Sergei Urban is the founder of The Dad Lab, one of the most followed play based learning platforms in the world. With over 10 million followers and 3 billion YouTube views, his content is used in classrooms worldwide including by the Australian government. He has done all of it without a science degree, with a masters in economics and a kitchen cupboard.

In this episode, George sits down with Sergei to talk about why hands on play matters more than any curriculum, how to create a home environment that builds curiosity without pressure, the truth about screen time and what he actually did when his toddler got addicted to an iPad, why social media gives children answers when what they need is questions, and what it means to raise children in the age of AI.

Whether you have five minutes or a full Sunday afternoon, this conversation will change how you think about play at home.

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.