Best Beginnings

Why Reading Starts Before a Child Can Read | Laura Henry-Allain MBE

Best Beginnings

Show Notes

Reading enjoyment among children is at a 20-year low. Only one in three children now say they enjoy reading in their free time. So what will it actually take to reverse that decline and why does it start in the earliest years? In this episode, Babyzone CEO George Looker is joined by Laura Henry-Allain MBE, creator of Jojo and Gran Gran, the first Black British animation produced for CBeebies, National Year of Reading ambassador and one of only 49 educators worldwide named a Global Master Leader in early care and education. In this episode we talk about: The National Year of Reading and what going all in really means Why parental confidence is one of the biggest barriers to reading at home The Jojo and Gran Gran origin story and what it took to get a yes from the BBC Dyslexia, neurodiversity and a lifelong love of reading Why representation in children's books benefits every child What children understand that most adults have lost Best Beginnings is a podcast from Babyzone, the UK's fastest-growing early years charity, dedicated to giving every baby the best start in life. Subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday.

More from Best Beginnings

Oct 20, 2026

Dr Dan Wuori, founder of Early Childhood Policy Solutions and author of the Grawemeyer Award-nominated book The Daycare Myth, joins Best Beginnings to make the case that separating childcare from education is a century-old myth that has cost children, families, and taxpayers an extraordinary amount. The conversation covers the neuroscience of when learning begins, what the UK's childcare expansion risks getting wrong, how to assess a childcare setting, and why we are already paying for the system children need, just in all the wrong ways.

Oct 13, 2026

Dr. Stephanie Culler, co-founder and CEO of Persephone Bioscience, joins George to share the findings from the My Baby Biome study, one of the largest examinations of the infant gut microbiome ever conducted in the United States. They discuss how antibiotics, C-section births and modern diet have disrupted the bacterial ecosystems babies need to develop healthy immune systems, and why even breastfed babies can be affected. Stephanie also explains what the science says parents and practitioners can actually do during the first thousand days of a child's life. Chapters:

Oct 6, 2026

Christian Guy, Executive Director of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, joins Best Beginnings to talk about what it actually takes to shift a society around the earliest years of life. The conversation covers the Shaping Us framework, the ADB infant observation scale, what a visit to Reggio Emilia revealed about genuine long-term investment, why early childhood needs the urgency of climate change, and what parents most need to hear.

Sep 29, 2026

Professor Linda Mayes, Director of the Yale Child Study Center, joins George to explore what it really takes to change a child's story. They discuss the neuroscience of parenting, why stress overwhelms the reward of caring for a baby, how addiction co-opts the brain's reward system, and what the Minding the Baby intervention has shown about the limits and possibilities of early support. Linda also shares what decades of longitudinal research have taught her about the one thing she would bet a fortune on for every child.

Sep 22, 2026

Anxiety disorders are more common than depression in the perinatal period, but most parents and most clinicians still don't know it. In this episode, George speaks with Dr. Fiona Challacombe, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, on perinatal OCD, the misdiagnosis crisis, what attachment research shows about the parent-infant bond, and what effective treatment looks like.

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