Assault courses made of pillows for newsreader Kate’s baby girl
KATE Silverton and her husband Mike Heron appear to have turned into ‘tiger parents’ keen to do all they can to ensure their daughter excels.
For at 13 months, Clemency has already been taught to do a forward roll and regularly uses an ‘assault course’ made of tunnels that the couple form using pillows, to encourage her to crawl and walk. She can also speak several words, the BBC news presenter says.
Miss Silverton, 42, has often referred to Clemency as her ‘little miracle’ as she was told it was unlikely she could conceive naturally and underwent IVF treatment unsuccessfully four times.
Clemency was christened recently at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street – where Miss Silverton married Mr Heron, whom she met when he was an instructor on a course for BBC journalists going to war zones.
Speaking about Clemency after the service, Mr Heron, a former Royal Marine, said: ‘I set up assault courses on the landing with pillows to form tunnels. She’s not walking yet so she crawls through them.
‘She’s also very inquisitive’
She’s very clever and alert. She can already say words like “mama’, “dada”, “dog” and “duck”.
Miss Silverton said: ‘She’s also very inquisitive, like me, and very active. This week she learnt how to forward roll and seems unafraid of anything.’
In the interview with Hello! magazine, Miss Silverton also discloses that she regularly takes Clemency to work and urged bosses to be more flexible so parents can spend more time with children.
‘Most of us have to work and most parents are forced to separate their children from their working lives,’ she said.
‘Why shouldn’t [childcare] be in part provided by employers with creches or in-house nursery care?’
Babies start to learn their native tongue while still in the womb – for up to ten weeks before they are born.
Latest research shows they listen to their mothers from 30 weeks of pregnancy, much earlier than was thought.
As a result, babies can differentiate between sounds from their native language and a foreign one only a few hours after birth, according to the study of 40 newborns in Sweden and the US.