Play, Talk, Read - help your child develop

Play, Talk, Read is a new website from the Scottish Government, which is designed to help parents and carers with their child's development. The good news is, there are lots of easy ways to do it. At an early age, playing, talking and reading to your child are the best ways to make sure that they learn new words and new skills to prepare them for later life.

The website is full of simple ideas and tips that are tailored to your local area and won't break the bank.

Playing, talking and reading are important because research shows that:

• during the first three years of life, 75% of brain growth is completed
• two-year-olds who are often read to and who do lots of activities like painting and singing can talk more fluently and are better at problem solving
• children whose parents talk to them regularly have better language skills than those who do not: at 20 months, babies of talkative parents knew 131 more words than infants of less talkative parents, while at 24 months the difference was 295.

To find out more, visit the Play, Talk, Read website.