Boost Your Child’s Development: 7 Tips for Collaborating with Your Nanny

Your nanny plays a crucial role in providing daily care and companionship to your child while you’re away. But aside from basic care, your nanny can help promote the emotional and cognitive development of your child.

Here are 7 tips to consider.

1. Encourage interactive play: Interactive play helps to promote cognitive growth in children. It includes playing with age-appropriate toys or games that encourage children to think and solve problems. Art and music activities are also important to help promote creativity and self-expression. Parents should consider the proportion of time they want their nanny to focus on light household chores vs. playtime with the child.
2. Encourage your nanny to take your child on outings: Nannies should be encouraged to take the child on outings such as visiting the park, library, playdates with other children, or the museum. These outings provide opportunities for children to learn and explore new things in a fun and stimulating environment. Some lingering COVID restrictions on venues and gatherings may limit these opportunities. This may mean helping your nanny to find alternative ways for your child to learn and explore, such as through virtual tours or online educational resources.
3. Encourage your nanny to read to your child: Reading is one of the most effective ways to promote emotional and cognitive development. Reading to children helps to improve their vocabulary, listening skills, and comprehension. It also helps to develop their imagination and creativity. There are new worlds and adventures to explore with every story!
4. Provide your nanny with information on childhood development: You can look up resources online and share them with your nanny about what to expect at different stages of development, and on how to support and encourage your child’s progress. Verywellfamily.com has great resources related to different milestones. Consider having discussions with your nanny about their point of view on what you’ve shared to make sure you’re aligned.
5. Encourage your nanny to maintain a healthy lifestyle and environment for your child: This includes providing healthy meals, making sure that your child gets enough physical activity and sleep. The COVID pandemic has further highlighted the importance of maintaining a healthy and safe environment for children. Your nanny may need to take extra precautions to minimize your child’s exposure (and their own) to the virus, such as by frequently washing hands and sanitizing surfaces. Make sure you’ve equipped your nanny with what they need for healthy meal preparation and cleaning to make these habits easier to maintain.
6. Help your nanny adapt to remote learning: With some aspects of remote learning here to stay, parents may need to help their nanny with technology, supervise online classes, and provide support with homework and assignments.
7. Help your nanny to establish a consistent routine: A consistent routine can help children feel safe, secure, and in control. It helps children understand what to expect and when to expect it, and develop a sense of time, which is important for cognitive development. You can work with your nanny on a routine that helps provide the variety of activities to support your child’s development while maintaining a little downtime for your nanny to rest and for your child to be independent too.

The suggestions we’ve provided in this blog are meant to be a starting point to start a productive conversation with your nanny. Ask your nanny for their ideas based on their experiences and be open to their feedback. Communicate regularly with your nanny without judgment and you’ll be well on your way to providing the best support together to help your child grow. 

Credits: Photo by Johnny McClung on Unsplash

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