After the first year, infants adopt the ‘pincer grasp’ where they use their thumb and index finger to grasp even very tiny objects. Giving babies plenty of opportunity to explore their world allows them to enhance their memory skills. The confidence to explore and discover new things develops during infancy and creates a healthy curiousity about the world throughout childhood. Lots of rehearsal and organisation is needed to use memory to its full advantage; repetition is an important part of both infant and childhood learning. Adults can facilitate babies’ language development by playing with them, focussing on particular toys, reading books and naming everyday objects.

When little learners start toddling, they will enjoy using the Feed Me Dino’s pulling cord to take the friendly little dinosaur around with them.This means that children can use deliberate mental activities, such as visualisation, to increase the chances of retaining information in working memory and then shifting it to their long-term knowledge base. This cute interactive dinosaur recognises the food you give him and has two different modes of play. Toys that name alphabet letters and everyday words satisfy young children’s need for repetition and rehearsal when practicing words and sounds.

There are social skills involved in language acquisition such as realising that it is necessary to wait until the other person has finished speaking. press buttons that introduce numbers, counting, music notes and shapes and a light-up head button that will trigger a question and answer game to encourage play and repetitive learning. Adults can influence an infant’s confidence about the world by encouraging and smiling at them when they approach an unfamiliar object or toy. Young infants’ memories are influenced by context; for instance, they can imitate an adult’s actions with a toy but only if the toy is identical in colour and features to the one that the adult played with. Infants’ memories become less context dependent at the same time that infants start to crawl and walk.You will often see young babies in a bath reaching with their legs towards a floating toy and kicking. The grasping, at first, is quite clumsy but through repetition, and across time, infants become adept at grasping and develop fine motor skills.

Explore the five press buttons on the dinosaur’s side to discover extra sound effects and numbers, counting, shapes and more early-years learning. Once babies are either crawling or walking their mobility gives them more opportunities to explore their world. Sound and movement attract a baby’s attention; if a toy is placed almost within reach of babies their movements become more animated.Babies begin to learn about conversational turn-taking from an early age; if a baby is babbling the adult waits for a pause and then talks to the baby. Older infants can remember, for instance, how to press a toy animal to make a sound even if the toy is slightly different to the one which the adult used to demonstrate. When young babies watch a mobile they are constantly moving their head, arms, legs and even their mouths in response to the movement of the toy. Infants first use the ulnar grasp where their fingers close against the palm when trying to hold an object. Place one of the eight food pieces into the hungry dinosaur’s mouth to hear fun responses and learn about foods, healthy eating and colours.