What can we actually know about a child's development in the first year of life? And what should parents do with that information?

Professor Emily Jones is Professor of Neuroscience at King's College London, leads the BOND lab at Birkbeck University and is Principal Investigator of BASIS, the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings, which has followed hundreds of babies from six months through childhood.

In this episode we talk about the biggest myths around autism, what sleep patterns in babies as young as 14 months can tell us, why neurodivergent parents may naturally be creating better environments for their children and what Emily would most want every worried parent to hear.

Best Beginnings is a podcast from Babyzone about the first five years of life and why they shape everything that comes after. Each week George Looker speaks to the researchers, practitioners, parents and policymakers thinking most deeply about early childhood.

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Neil Leitch has spent decades fighting for the early years sector to be taken seriously. As CEO of the Early Years Alliance, the largest early years membership organisation in England, he has seen what happens when families don't get the support they need in the earliest years of life and what changes when they do.

In this episode we talk about a freedom of information request that took two and a half years to win and revealed that in 2021 the Department for Education calculated it would cost £7.49 per hour to properly fund early years provision for three and four year olds. Today providers receive around £5.60. Less than the government's own figure, four years on, after double digit inflation and rising costs.

We also talk about why 77% of early years educators who leave the sector say they feel undervalued by government, what real education actually looks like, why every child has talent but not every child has opportunity and why the earliest years are the single most important period we consistently underinvest in.

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