Helen Battelley, an internationally respected Early Years Physical Development consultant, trainer, author and brings energy and a motivational approach to raising the profile of PA in the early years. As the chair of the National Early Years Active Start Partnership (NEYASP), she leads a diverse group of stakeholders from across the UK to address the systemic challenges in the early years sector to ensure that every child benefits from the positive outcomes of play and PA. NEYASP are taking positive action to inform and support policy makers and inspection bodies to ensure the sector is taking an evidence-informed approach and valuing the place of physical development in a child’s life, right from the moment they enter the world!
Baby Music and Sensory Play
Engaging a newborn in various sensory experiences plays a significant role in promoting neuroplasticity and supporting both motor and cognitive development.
- Natural Movement (Babywearing): Carrying your baby in a wrap close to your body provides a more natural range of motion, stimulating the vestibular system (which governs balance and spatial orientation). This can promote head control, core strength, and coordination in early development.
- Tummy Time: Tummy time is crucial for strengthening the neck, shoulders, and core, leading to gross motor skills like rolling over, crawling, and sitting up. Starting tummy time by laying your newborn on your chest is a great way to ease into it, allowing your baby to lift their head and work those muscles in a comforting environment.
- Back time: Time spent on their backs, or "back time," is essential for babies' physical, cognitive, and sensory development. Lying on their backs allows babies to freely move their arms and legs, which strengthens muscles and helps them develop motor skills essential for rolling, reaching, and eventually crawling. It also gives them the chance to explore their surroundings, enhancing visual tracking and awareness. Regular back time, balanced with supervised tummy time, supports a baby’s overall physical development
- Multisensory Stimulation: Introducing a variety of sensory experiences—visual (colourful toys, patterns), auditory (soothing music, varied sounds), olfactory (familiar smells like mom’s scent), and tactile (soft fabrics, textures)—encourages the development of different sensory pathways. These stimulations can also lay the groundwork for future cognitive and emotional regulation.
- Hip Movement and Crawling: Encouraging hip movements through play and positioning prepares infants for crawling, which is essential for bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body) and further supports spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, and core development.
The overall goal is to ensure your baby experiences a wide range of movements and sensory inputs to support the integration of primitive reflexes, like the Spinal Galant reflex. By providing these opportunities early on, you are creating an environment where their brain can adapt and develop, promoting healthy growth and behaviour.
Sensory Motor Play
Sensory motor play is fundamental for infants' development, combining sensory stimulation with movement to support their growth in various domains. Through activities like reaching for toys, feeling different textures, or tracking moving objects, infants develop essential motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and muscle strength. These activities stimulate their senses—sight, sound, touch, balance, emotional development—which helps with brain development and processing new information.
Sensory motor play also promotes cognitive growth by encouraging curiosity, problem-solving, and exploration. It fosters emotional and social bonds as caregivers engage in play, enhancing infants' sense of security and building communication skills through responses to their movements and actions. Overall, sensory motor play provides infants with a well-rounded developmental foundation.
Top Tips for Creating a Multi-Sensory Environment for Babies
Use Soft Lighting and Colourful Visuals
Introduce soft, natural lighting combined with colourful mobiles or high-contrast patterns that catch a baby’s attention. Simple visuals like black-and-white patterns are especially beneficial for young infants’ developing vision.
Incorporate Various Textures
Offer toys and blankets with diverse textures—smooth, soft, bumpy, and crinkly. Babies enjoy exploring textures with their hands and mouth, which helps refine their sense of touch and grasping skills. Include heuristic baskets with natural objects and objects from around the home for baby to explore lemons, CD’s, pinecones, natural sponges, cloths, large keys, wooden spoons, containers etc.
Play with Sounds
Introduce a variety of music genres, lullabies, jazz, funk, pop, classical or natural sounds (like ocean waves or birds) to provide auditory stimulation. Percussion instruments can aid auditory stimulation, tracking and listening skills.
Introduce Safe Scents
Gentle, natural scents like lavender or chamomile can be calming. Avoid strong or synthetic smells, and ensure scents are used sparingly and safely away from the baby’s immediate space.
Engage in Movement Activities
Gentle rocking, swaying, or bouncing can provide sensory stimulation. Swings or bouncers, when used appropriately, can help soothe babies and provide sensory input through movement.
Add Water Play Opportunities
Supervised water play, such as splashing in a shallow tub or playing with a damp cloth, offers unique sensory experiences and helps develop body awareness.
Encourage Tummy Time with Sensory Mats
Use sensory mats with different textures, colours, and attached toys to encourage tummy time, which strengthens muscles while offering a rich sensory experience.
Rotate Toys and Sensory Experiences
Change up toys and sensory elements regularly to keep the environment interesting and to expose the baby to a wide range of stimuli, supporting curiosity and cognitive development.
Creating a safe, multi-sensory environment helps babies learn through exploration, enhancing their physical, cognitive, and emotional growth in engaging and comforting ways.
To further support your practice, I invite you to explore the Evidence Store from the Education Endowment Foundation, a resource designed to unlock innovative and proven approaches to fostering children’s physical growth, development, and active play. Supporting educators to create enriching environments that nurture the essential skills and habits that are so critical during the early years
Helen Battelley MA
In 2024 Helen was the movement consultant for ‘Awesome Animals and Mini Me’ a series for young children on SKY TV. The series is currently available on Sky and NOW TV.
This year also saw the release of the Physical Activity Adventure Pack (PAAP), a scheme of work developed specifically for early years children, drawing on developmentally appropriate practice, movement play and aligned with the DfE’s Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. The scheme was cocreated by Helen and Brianne Pearson.
Helen works as a lecturer and trainer, for 4 universities delivering Initial Teacher Training (ITT) modules in Primary PE and Early Childhood PE Pedagogy as well as Early Childhood Physical Development. She is also an approved provider for the UK’s Association for Physical Education (AfPE) and a member of the Chartered Association of Teachers.
Helen’s consultancy takes her all over the world, from Malaysia to Dubai, from China to Romania. The movement philosophy Helen promotes is to embed movement within the curriculum and framework to enable a movement philosophy. The embodiment of her training is to raise confidence in the areas of movement play and physical activity. The training Helen delivers ranges from supporting educators in developing activities to support the Early Years Physical Development, to working with coaches and PE leads to create PE schemes of work and methodology suited to young children.