# Introduction

In this course 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 course. 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.

You can find out more in the following PDF: Meet the family

This OpenLearn course provides a sample of level 1 study in Education, Childhood & Youth

OpenLearn - Understanding children: Babies being heard
Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.