Turn-taking
Many families quickly master such tasks as narrating life, engaging in purposeful play routines reading stories and singing off and on all day! They become adept at providing a language-rich environment for their child.
Sometimes they are a bit surprised when asked, “How much are you listening?” While focusing on “input,” it can be challenging to stop and provide that wait time your child needs to respond to you.
Let’s go back to words we all heard early in our own lives, “You have to take turns and share.”
It is important to share communication space with your child so that he will understand he gets (and needs to take) his turn to communicate.
“In order to take turns, caregivers learn to wait for a non-verbal or verbal response from a child before they take another turn in the communication exchange. Infants may coo or kick their feet as a conversational turn, while a three-year old child is expected to give an appropriate verbal response. The goal when adults take turns is to elicit participation from the infant or child (Cole& Flexer, 2007).
If you are engaged in a play routine and shake a box of toys and say, “What should we do?” and your child approximates or says, “Knock, Knock, Knock,” that is an example of turn-taking. You have taken the lead by setting up some structured play. You have initiated a conversation and given your child the space and expectation that he needs to respond.
If you are sharing less structured play time with your child, he may choose an item of interest. You can then say, “Oh, do you want to play with the ball?” Wait for your child to vocalize. If there is no response, offer another communication model based on your child’s level. You might say, “ball” and wait to hear “ba.” You might say, “Do you want to catch or throw first?” or all sorts of things in between depending on your child’s communication level.
The most important thing to remember is that communication is a two-way street. Taking turns is important to communication and brain development.
You will often hear professionals talk about serve and return. That’s turn-taking. Whatever you call it, JUST DO IT.
Are you sharing sufficient communication space with your child? Your goal is to help your child learn to listen and talk. Make sure you are providing the wait time he needs to take his turn talking.
Many families quickly master such tasks as narrating life, engaging in purposeful play routines reading stories and singing off and on all day! They become adept at providing a language-rich environment for their child.
Sometimes they are a bit surprised when asked, “How much are you listening?” While focusing on “input,” it can be challenging to stop and provide that wait time your child needs to respond to you.
Let’s go back to words we all heard early in our own lives, “You have to take turns and share.”
It is important to share communication space with your child so that he will understand he gets (and needs to take) his turn to communicate.
“In order to take turns, caregivers learn to wait for a non-verbal or verbal response from a child before they take another turn in the communication exchange. Infants may coo or kick their feet as a conversational turn, while a three-year old child is expected to give an appropriate verbal response. The goal when adults take turns is to elicit participation from the infant or child (Cole& Flexer, 2007).
If you are engaged in a play routine and shake a box of toys and say, “What should we do?” and your child approximates or says, “Knock, Knock, Knock,” that is an example of turn-taking. You have taken the lead by setting up some structured play. You have initiated a conversation and given your child the space and expectation that he needs to respond.
If you are sharing less structured play time with your child, he may choose an item of interest. You can then say, “Oh, do you want to play with the ball?” Wait for your child to vocalize. If there is no response, offer another communication model based on your child’s level. You might say, “ball” and wait to hear “ba.” You might say, “Do you want to catch or throw first?” or all sorts of things in between depending on your child’s communication level.
The most important thing to remember is that communication is a two-way street. Taking turns is important to communication and brain development.
You will often hear professionals talk about serve and return. That’s turn-taking. Whatever you call it, JUST DO IT.
Are you sharing sufficient communication space with your child? Your goal is to help your child learn to listen and talk. Make sure you are providing the wait time he needs to take his turn talking.