In an article on Bath time and bubs in the September 2014 issue of Practical Parenting, our principal child psychologist Azza Brown, comments on engaging babies in interactive bath time to improve the child's emotional and social development ... 

The following were some of the comments made by child developmental expert Azza Brown:

Getting into the tun with your baby can be a lovely chance to have together time and to bond through gentle skin-to skin- contact and and splish-splash around. It's great to get dad involved here, too. "Dads are usually more playful with bub and research now shows this helps your bubba's physical, emotional and brain development," says child-psychology expert Azza Brown.And enjoying this time is so simple: "First make sure you have plenty of time, then get everything you need, turn your phone off, talk, touch and sing to your baby and delight as you watch him splash and learn," says Pip. "If bub has older siblings, this is a perfect time for everyone to get in on the action," adds Azza.....

Create a story using washcloth Puppets who talk to each other, or simply read out loud from a waterproof book, describing what you see on the pages and being sure to give everything a label ('car','boat', 'dog'). These are all ideal activities for developing language skills. Keep up the bathtime talk by "cooing or imitating your bub's babbling while maintaining eye contact", Azza Advises. This helps to build a trusting, positive parent-child relationship and shows bub how to reciprocate with his own actions and facial expressions... 

For the full article, please purchase the Septmeber 2014 issue of Practical Parenting..