Babies: connecting & communicating

Bonding and attachment: babies

Bonding and attachment are about giving your baby plenty of love, attention and interesting experiences. This helps your baby’s learning and development.

Bonding with newborns and babies: in pictures

Bonding with babies is about smiling, cuddling, massage, singing, talking, reading and playing. See how to bond with your baby in our illustrated guide.

VIDEO: Connecting and communicating: 0-6 months

This video is about bonding and communicating with young babies. It explains how talking to your baby in everyday activities helps with their development.

VIDEO: Connecting and communicating: 7-17 months

This video shows how communicating with babies helps them learn language. Listening and responding to your baby is also good for bonding and relationships.

VIDEO: Families with diverse cultural backgrounds: connecting and communicating

In this video, parents from diverse cultural backgrounds talk about how they connect with their children and encourage them to learn and develop.

Can you spoil a baby? No. Responding calmly and consistently helps your baby learn that the world is safe, which helps bonding – good for baby, good for you.

Positive attention and your child

Positive attention is responding to children with warmth and interest. It helps children feel secure and valued. In fact, it’s key to children’s development.

Positive relationships for parents and children: how to build them

Positive relationships between parents and children are key to child development. These relationships are about being in the moment, quality time and trust.

VIDEO: Dads and kids: how to enjoy time together

In this video, dads explain how they make the most of time with their children. For example, they use bath time, playtime and story time for bonding.

VIDEO: Special moments with children

In this video, hear parents describe how special moments together help children feel safe, secure and loved. This is important for children’s development.

When babies start smiling and why it’s important to smile back

Babies start smiling at around 6 weeks. Smiling is part of a warm, responsive relationship with your baby. In fact, smiles are key to early development.

Communication and talking: babies and toddlers

Children are ready to communicate from birth. Encourage talking and communication by chatting, responding to children’s interests, and tuning in to children.

Babies develop language and talking skills through play. Play ideas for baby language skills include reading, storytelling, nursery rhymes and everyday chat.

Your baby’s cues tell you what your baby wants and needs. Our guide has videos so you can see examples of baby hunger cues, tired cues, play cues and more.

Baby and toddler cues: in pictures

How do you know if your baby wants to play, wants a break or needs to sleep? Use this illustrated guide to baby tired signs and other baby cues.

Communicating well with babies and children: tips

Good communication is key to children’s relationships and development. It’s about listening and talking in ways that make children feel important and valued.

Singing activity for children: songs in a second language

Singing is a great way to help your child remember words and sentence structure in a second language. Singing is a fun way to practise language skills too.

Benefits of bilingualism or multilingualism for kids and families

Bilingualism or multilingualism is good for kids and families. For example, it strengthens family bonds and can improve learning and language skills.

Raising multilingual and bilingual children: options

The main models for raising bilingual children are one parent-one language and one environment-one language. Get tips for using these models with your child.

Resources for raising multilingual and bilingual children

If you want to teach your child multiple languages, many people and services can help. Our guide has links to multilingual and bilingual resources.