Understanding children: Babies being heard

Introduction

In this unit you will find out some of the things very young babies can do. You will also discover how babies can contribute to family life and relationships from birth. You will look at what they need from other adults and children, and what they can learn.

Using a video extract, you will observe and listen to young babies in action, and learn from them.

If you are a parent or carer. You can consider your role in helping to give babies a good start in life.

Section 1 will introduce you to the family who are the subject of the case studies throughout the unit. The family is fictional, and used as a teaching tool to introduce you to the learning material. Despite being fictional, we hope that its members will become believable figures.

The family is made up from the combined experiences of families and friends and those we know about from our own, and other people’s research.

Jodie Watkins is a part-time recruitment consultant. Her partner is Eamon McLaughlin. They have a 12 month old daughter, Mia. Jodie also has two children from a previous relationship with Graham Adunola, a 30 year old retail manager – Ryan, who is 4 years and 6 months old, and Daisy, who is 10 years and 6 months.

The family extends to include Jodie's retired parents, Michael and Grace, and Graham's aunt, Rosalind. All three are retired and in their sixties.

Meet the Family830.7KB PDF document

This unit is from our archive and is an adapted extract from the Open University course Understanding children (Y156), which is no longer in presentation. If you wish to study formally with The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in the Openings Programme [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .