Supporting parents and carers in helping children aged 0-3 grow to their fullest potential.

  • During the first year of life, the human brain doubles to 70% of its adult size, creating one million new connections per second.

  • By age three, it grows to 80% of its adult size; by age 5, a child's brain has almost reached 90% of its growth.

    But what does that mean?

  • Babies have billions of neurons at birth, but only a few are connected.

  • It's like a game of telephone, where parents or caregivers need to help connect the wires.

    They do this by providing positive experiences (which creates the connection) and repeating them (which strengthens the connection).

  • By 2 or 3, a child's brain has twice as many neural pathways as it will in adulthood.

What are
The Basics?

The Basics are five simple and powerful ways for every family to give every child the best start. They encompass most of what experts say is essential for positive development in children from birth to age three, A time that has the most significant impact on their future happiness and success.

Choose a Basic and dive in.

  • Maximise Love, Manage Stress with The Basics

    Maximise Love, Manage Stress

    Children learn about themselves and their world through relationships with parents, family members, and caregivers. When children feel loved, safe and secure, and when parents or caregivers receive proper support and tools to handle stress, children are more likely to respond to different emotions in healthy ways and form strong connections as they grow.

    Learn more
  • Talk, Sing, and Point with The Basics

    Talk, Sing, and Point

    Babies begin to learn language from the very beginning. They pay close attention to your sounds and expressions as you interact with them. You can speed up their language development by talking, singing, and pointing, improving their early learning and engagement with the world around them.

    Learn more
  • Count, Group, and Compare with The Basics

    Count, Group, and Compare

    Even infants can understand simple maths concepts, such as recognizing patterns and quantities. Toddlers enjoy learning maths concepts like comparing shapes and sizes, which help them understand the world around them. You can support their confidence and understanding by relating their interests to maths concepts such as small, smaller, big, bigger, more, and less (to name a few).

    Learn more
  • Count, Group, and Compare with The Basics

    Explore Movement and Play

    Play is an essential aspect of your child's learning and development. It helps them build their confidence, feel loved, happy, and safe, understand how the world works, develop social skills, language, and communication, learn about caring for others and the environment, and develop physical skills.

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  • Read and Discuss Stories with The Basics

    Read and Discuss Stories

    Reading aloud helps babies turn into confident thinkers. Research has shown that the amount of time spent reading and how you read and talk with your child can predict a child's later thinking and language development. Reading aloud to them from birth, while pointing to the pictures and discussing the story, is one of the most important things you can do to prepare a child for success in school.

    Learn more

The Basics Origin

The Boston Basics Campaign is a coalition of organisations and individuals working to make sure that every child gets a great start in life. The founding partners are the Black Philanthropy Fund, the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, the Boston Mayor’s Education Cabinet, WGBH Public Broadcasting, and Boston Children’s Museum.

We gratefully acknowledge the work of Dr Ron Ferguson in collaboration with the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University. The materials used are based on The Boston Basics which were sponsored by The Black Philanthropic Fund and made in the USA.