Kate Middleton is learning how babies are interacting with the world around them — and ensuring they have the best start to life possible.

The Princess of Wales, 41, spent Thursday morning in Nuneaton, in England’s Midlands, where she spoke with health professionals and families about the support they are receiving in those first key months after a baby is born. Health visitors are the professionals who families see most in the first months and years of their children’s lives.

The health visitors Kate met are taking part in a pioneering field study — backed by her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood — which is designed to support the profession to promote infant well-being as well as social and emotional development.

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The Centre for Early Childhood has provided a $64,000 (£50,000) grant for the study, which will evaluate the use of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB) that supports parent-infant relationships and early childhood development. It is used to assess how babies are interacting with the world around them, focusing on behaviors like eye contact, facial expressions, vocalization and activity levels. The device can help health practitioners and families to better understand the ways babies express their feelings.

During the outing at Riversley Park Children’s Centre, Princess Kate sat in a circle of babies on adult’s laps, calming holding the hand of the child seated next to her and stroking the little one’s arm with her thumb.

Following the event, Kate’s team shared photos on her joint Instagram page with Prince William.

“Lovely chatting with the wonderful health visitors and mums playing a part in creating a nurturing environment for so many children and parents at the Riversley Park Children’s Centre in Nuneaton. Health Visitors are such an important support for new parents from pregnancy through to children starting school,” they wrote. “It was also great to hear how @earlychildhood trials of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale are going, reminding us how important innovation is in #ShapingUs.”

Kate previously saw the ADBB at work when she visited Denmark last year and came home wanting to explore whether it could be introduced in the U.K. so and her Centre for Early Childhood has been working closely with the Institute of Health Visiting to explore the potential for implementation of it.