'I had to do that': Kate shows her delight as she enjoys helter-skelter slide in Denmark
Kate went down a slide during a visit to the Lego Foundation PlayLab
The Duchess of Cambridge embraced her inner-child as she slid down a helter-skelter ride during a visit to Copenhagen to learn about Denmark’s world-leading approach to early childhood development.
Laughing as she emerged from the slide, which she whizzed down after being told some staff use it instead of taking the stairs, Kate joked with the press saying: “You stood far enough away!” Adding: “In the spirit of where I am, I had to do that.”
The royal will spend two days in the capital on a fact-finding, working visit with her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
It will be the first time she has taken the work of her foundation, which she launched in June, to the international stage.
The duchess - who was dressed in Denmark's national colours of red and white- clearly enjoyed her visit to the Lego Foundation PlayLab at University College Copenhagen where students training to be early years professionals are encouraged to play.
After chatting to parents with their babies at Copenhagen’s Children’s Museum, Kate confessed she felt “broody” and joked husband William worries about her working with under one-year-olds because she returns home wanting “another one”.
The royal also revealed she had spent some of the recent half-term school break playing with Lego with her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who were envious when they learnt she would be visiting the Lego Foundation PlayLab.
Her visit will also pay tribute to the historic ties Britain shares with Denmark and celebrate the countries’ joint jubilees – the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Golden Jubilee of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, both of which fall in 2022.
The duchess travelled by a scheduled flight to the capital Copenhagen but it is thought her plane was delayed by around 30 minutes.
She made up some time for her first visit to the University of Copenhagen to meet researchers from the Copenhagen Infant Mental Health Project (CIMHP), which aims to promote the mental wellbeing of, and relationships between, infants and their parents.
Academics have developed an innovative screening tool, the Alarm Distress Baby Scale, used to help health visitors identify infants at risk of adverse social and emotional development.
The duchess will meet leading researchers running the initiative and will hear from health visitors who are implementing these tools in their work.
Alongside the screening tool, academics have launched the Understanding Your Baby research project which provides further training for health visitors so they can help new parents as they begin to notice and interpret their babies’ behavioural cues.
At Copenhagen’s Children’s Museum the duchess will meet a few of the 1,300 first-time parents benefiting from the project, begun in 2019 and ending in July, that involves more than 200 health workers.
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