Find resources / Group parenting programme / Child development / What’s going on for pēpi

• Understand how children grow and develop.
• Enjoy children’s development and have realistic expectations of them.
• Know to observe and follow babies' cues.

Invite everyone to talk to another person, or to the group, about their baby and what they’re enjoying about this particular time in pēpi’s development. Open the discussion – are there any questions?

Invite them to pair up or cluster into small groups related to their baby’s age and stage. Brainstorm all the special things that are going on for their babies.

Use these questions to prompt thinking if necessary:

• What have you seen your pēpi doing recently?
• How do they move?
• How are they using their hands?
• What sounds are they making?

If time allows, each participant could make a poster with a baby picture in the middle and phrases written around the picture to represent their baby’s development. For example, crawls, eats bananas, likes his photo book.

Ask the small groups to consider:

• What are the things that are not so enjoyable about this stage in their development?
• Why is that?

Use the Tākai Whakatipu booklets that cover the ages of participants’ children or the Ara Mātua Parenting Pathways.

Ask whānau to look at the ‘Whānau say’ sections in the Tākai Whakatipu booklets related to pēpi’s stage, or at the relevant Ara Mātua Parenting Pathway resource.

Here are some related questions and activities to encourage them:

• Would you like to check off the things you’re doing with your pēpi?
• Would you like to look for some new ideas to try with pēpi?
• Are there things you’re looking forward to your pēpi learning to do?
• What are you expecting to happen next? If you’re not sure, why not look ahead to the next stage?