The first five years of a child’s life, may just be some of the most important years of their life developmentally. The reason this stage of their development is so crucial for later life, is that the brain development throughout these five years is significant. You can support your child in having the best start to life by what you do during these first five years. From pregnancy to their fifth birthday, what you do matters, beyond measure (NSW Government, 2025). In the eyes of your child, you are their greatest teacher; therefore, the time you spend supporting them through play, talk and love shapes their future.

3Through having a strong, healthy and positive relationship with your child, this helps to support their development. According to Raising Children Network (2023) “nurturing relationships are the foundation” of a child’s ability to develop healthily. From a young age our children are like sponges and their little brains are absorbing so much information, meaning everything we do matters. Whether it’s how we show love, the language we use or how we react and show our emotions, our children take it all in. Whilst genetics do play a part as they “provide the initial map” the interactions between you, your child, their environments and their genetics will collaboratively aid in developing 90% of your child’s brain before their fifth birthday (Starting Blocks, 2024)

The brains different areas are all responsible for supporting different abilities such as “movement, language and emotion” (First Things First, 2018). This is evident from birth as your baby is born knowing how to suckle, this is a skill actually developed by all baby’s in utero. The sucking reflex is fully developed in most babies by 36 weeks gestation, hence we see babies born with “an eagerness to breastfeed” (What to Expect, 2021). However, what we don’t see is babies born with the ability to regulate their emotions. Babies will cry often as a way to communicate their needs as they’re unable to talk or express their feelings to you. The limbic system is the part of our brains responsible for our “behavioural and emotional responses” (University of Queensland, 2025), and is not fully developed until adolescence. This research suggests that due to the differing stages and timelines of brain development, that we as parents should continue to mould and support our child’s development until adulthood.

Within those first five years the way in which we respond to our children’s demands will shape our relationship with them forever more. We hear phrases such as “don’t be a baby” often used when a child is having big emotions about something; however, through that use of language we are actually invalidating and restricting our child’s ability to express their emotions. If our children are having big emotions, there are ways in which we as parents can support them, in a way that will support them to be in touch with their feelings and emotions (Children’s Hospital Orange County, 2024)

Conclusively, as suggested by the above research there are endless ways we can support our children. Knowing that their first five years of life are so important to their overall development, it is suggested that we as parents do all we can to encourage success.