GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
We all want what's best for our children. But being a parent/caregiver isn't always easy. That's why MyGov and UNICEF bring together some of the world’s leading experts on young children (up to 6 years) to give you top tips, interesting insights and fun facts on parenting/caregiving. This is also our attempt to help build an online community of parents/caregivers to share information and undertake activities focused on Eat – Play – Love: what children most need for having the best start in life!
These short masterclasses will give you trustworthy information you need to know. The easy, yet important and interesting, challenges below the masterclasses will help you put to practice these facts to enable healthy brain development for children you interact with in your everyday lives.
of these challenges will also get a chance to interact with UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and Actor KareenaKapoor/Madhuri Dixit in an informal parenting session. Participants for all challenges can be parents or any caregiver, including grandparents, aunts and uncles, extended family, among others.
Can a baby's brain be stimulated while it's still in the womb? How does nutrition affect brain development? How much should you actively engage with your child? What's the best way to teach your child different languages? – You will find all this and more in this Mini Parenting Master Class by Professor Frank Oberklaid.
Submit written recipes, not exceeding 2000 characters, with the ingredients used to cook the food and the time for cooking. The recipe must ideally be made from locally available healthy ingredients that can also be a staple source of balanced, nutritious diet for a child. Additionally, upload a picture of the recipe and a picture of you feeding the child.
Did you know that the most important interaction you can have with your child is through play? Harvard University's Dr. Jack Shonkoff explains the most important thing a parent can do to support their child's brain development.
Look for colourful things to create any simple, homemade toy, like a crib mobile, rattle, simple picture books, puzzles, hand puppets and dolls to develop a child's curiosity and help her/him learn new things. Just send us a picture of the final object, along with 3 or 4 images through various stages of the toy being made.
Did you know a lullaby could make your baby calmer because it slows down her heart? This is Dr. Ibrahim Baltagi's masterclass on how music affects your babies' brain.
You can use every opportunity where you engage with a child to sing to them, including when feeding, massaging, bathing, putting to sleep or when working near her/him. Ask someone to record a video of no more than 2 minutes that will capture both your lullaby and the child's response to it.
Dr. Michele Griswold, lactation expert and former president of the International Lactation Consultant Association answers some of the many common questions surrounding breastfeeding.
Baby talk may sound silly to you, but not to your child! In the first 1,000 days, your baby's brain develops at a pace never repeated again. We sat down with Dr. Marina Kalashnikova, who researches how babies learn language, to find out what baby talk is and why it's the most important language in the world.
Ambassador Sachin Tendulkar shares facts that he wishes for every parent to know!
www.unicef.org/parenting
newdelhi[at]unicef[dot]org
