Taylor & Francis news

Taylor & Francis announces innovative multimedia resources to support readers of Developing Little Minds books

Experimental tools created using Google’s Gemini Notebook to deepen engagement with early childhood development research

Photo of three children playing in a wooded area on a sunny day, running away from the camera.
Image: POCSTOCK, Inc via Alamy

Leading education publisher Taylor & Francis has announced a new set of immersive tools to help readers explore in depth the critically acclaimed Developing Little Minds series of books by Dr Jacqueline Harding. Created in Gemini Notebook, the free resource uses video and audio overviews, flashcards, infographics, glossary, quiz and more to open up research-based insights on child development, play, and human connection.

The featured notebook also includes an interactive chat function that offers tailored guidance, enabling users to pose specific childhood development challenges and consider evidence-based solutions drawn from the books’ content.

While the books are written primarily for early years students and practitioners, the new resources will also make the content accessible to a broader readership, including parents, carers, policymakers, and anyone invested in supporting young children’s development.

The Developing Little Minds series, published under the Routledge imprint, provides accessible guidance grounded in research on early childhood development, play, laughter, language, communication, and the growing brain. Written by Dr Jacqueline Harding, renowned international expert in child development and honorary visiting research fellow at Middlesex University, current titles in the series are The Brain that Loves to Play, The Brain that Loves to Laugh, and Little Brains Love to Talk.

“I am delighted to see the Developing Little Minds series take this exciting step into the world of multimedia learning,” said Dr Jacqueline Harding. “My aim as an author has always been to make research about young children’s developing brains accessible, meaningful and practical for the people who shape their everyday experiences. These new resources offer readers an opportunity to explore the ideas in my books in different ways, encouraging curiosity, reflection and deeper engagement with the science behind childhood development.”

Dr Harding added: “I hope this innovative approach will help more parents, practitioners, students and professionals connect research with real-life experiences, while supporting thoughtful conversations about how we nurture children’s play, laughter, language and human connection. This is enormously exciting, and it’s a privilege to be involved.”

Mark Majurey, SVP Commercial & Licensing at Taylor & Francis, said: “As AI applications for knowledge discovery continue to evolve, we are experimenting with various tools that have potential to connect users to trusted content in new ways. We were therefore delighted to partner with Google to develop this standalone resource, to explore how its functionality can be used to support the practical application of Jacqueline Harding’s books. We look forward to hearing from readers about their experience of using it.”

Explore the Developing Little Minds resources on Notebook

About Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis supports diverse communities of experts, researchers and knowledge makers around the world to accelerate and maximize the impact of their work. We are a leader in our field, publish across all disciplines and have one of the largest Humanities and Social Sciences portfolios. Our expertise, built on an academic publishing heritage of over 200 years, advances trusted knowledge that fosters human progress.

Our 2,400+ people, based in a global network of offices in more than 15 countries, use their skills and the latest technology to curate, validate and share impactful advanced, emergent and applied knowledge. Under the Taylor & Francis, Routledge and F1000 imprints, we publish over 2,500 journals, 8,400 new books each year and partner with more than 700 scholarly societies.

Taylor & Francis is proud to be a Global Certified Accessible™ publisher and to have achieved CarbonNeutral® certification for our operations and print publications in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol.

Media contact: Mark Robinson, mark.robinson@tandf.co.uk

About Dr Jaqueline Harding MA, Cert Ed, Cert Clinical Neurophysiology, SFHEA

As an international child development and education expert, Dr Jacqueline Harding is recognised for her work advising the UK government, practitioners and parents. Jacqueline is chair of the highly influential Bright Start Foundation. She is an author and Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at Middlesex University. Jacqueline also represented the UK in developing essential digital criteria and establishing best practice for broadcasters, parents and teachers across Europe.

Jacqueline was privileged to pioneer and manage the Parentchannel.tv platform for the UK government - a groundbreaking film-based resource for parents and practitioners. She continues to work on award-winning children’s TV shows, such as Peter Rabbit, Teletubbies, Clangers. Currently, she is working for the BBC on their flagship shows BeddyByes and My First in addition to a confidential new show for Sky, plus two series for development with top TV companies. In 2025, she was asked to represent the BBC for the launch of CBeebies Parenting. Recently, she was asked to team up with Disney and Mattel for Toy Story 5 toys. She is a frequent speaker in the media and is a former BBC Education Editor, Government Consultant, and Headteacher.

www.drjacquelineharding.com