Helping Your Child​ Explore and Learn Excellent Insights for Parenting. Forward this one to all the new parents in your life.

MOTAL is committed to providing families with research-based parenting and care-giving strategies that enhance brain development in early childhood and beyond. Here are some new perspectives to help you and your loved ones provide positive, healthy and supportive parenting. 


Children who have secure attachments--that is attachments based on trust, consistency and caregiver availability--will benefit in two major ways:

1.  Novelty seeking: Children in the context of secure attachments are more likely to try/explore new things.
This increase in exploration leads to more cognitive
gains. If a child feels safe to make mistakes without
fear of punishment, they will try new things that will
allow their brain to build new connections and
strengthen other networks.

• Create a sensory experience for children with items found in the kitchen by placing into a box or brown paper bag plastic cups, lids, spoons, basting brushes, or anything that is about the right size for your little one. Let them dig in and examine their "find."

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• You may want to try that first idea with food: sliced apples, peeled and separated cuties, grapes, banana pieces, for example.  If you want to make this a "surprise" lunch, place sticks of lunch meat, cheese, fruit, and crackers in the bag and see what happens.

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• Is your child making a mess in the bathtub?  Welcome it!  Water play is an important opportunity for children to learn all sorts of things.  And clean-up just takes a few minutes – children should be encouraged to help with clean-up, but remember punishments are not part of the deal – make it fun!

Keep safety in mind with each of these suggestions. Novelty seeking is relational driven and can only be established through the interactions that occur during each of these activities. As well as interactions, caregivers should consider motor ability, choking hazards and water safety before trying any of the above.


2.  Proximity seeking:  Children in the context of secure attachments will seek closeness with their primary caregiver as a way to establish safety in unfamiliar or uncertain situations.  The feeling of safety can provide children with the assurance they need to process uncertainty.

• When you and your child are away from home, watch for opportunities for your child to learn from new surroundings.

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• At the park, engage your little one with a nature hunt.  Bring a small bag or basket and watch your child place leaves, bark, flowers, feathers, and other fascinating items.  You will want to keep your child safe so no human-created items (napkins, cups, bottles, etc.) and keep sanitary hand wipes nearby and use

• As your child develops language skills give them a chance to speak for themselves to doctors, dentists, sales people, postal workers, restaurant servers, etc.

Positive, healthy, nurturing, loving and supportive parenting practices enable our children to feel safe and will lead to positive brain development and outcomes.


Prepared by 
MOTAL Board Members Eva Postma and Cheryl Stewart 


in conjunction with 
BRICK Consulting Group
brickconsultinggroup.org