Before the First Word Stage: Advice for Parents!

Last week we posted about how parents can foster their child’s language development through communicative intent. This week is all about turn-taking. When humans communicate, they take turns. One is the speaker and the other is the listener and they can change their communication roles as speaker and listener. The way to teach infants and toddlers to develop this skill is to create and model turn-taking opportunities. You can begin with turn-taking for simple things such as tapping on the side of the crib. For example, if your little one happens to tap on his or her highchair or the side of the crib, you tap on the side of the crib, then wait and give him or her a turn to tap again. Once your baby begins to produce sounds, you can do the same thing! Many infant game routines and songs foster turn-taking. These are great for at-home and out in the community practice! These include: peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, this little piggy, etc. Peek-a-boo is especially good because it enables your child to practice the roles of both initiator and responder. This game is also excellent because it has endless variations! For example, you can utilize a washcloth at bath time, placemat in a restaurant – which makes it helpful for generalization and learning!

Here we have Cristian taking a turn with the bubbles, then it will be Grace’s turn!