Communicating with children

Communicating with young children can be challenging. If they can talk they don’t typically have enough words in there primary language to express themselves effectively and that’s frustrating. So instead of putting a paywall on expressing yourself by demanding you do so in words, lets make alternative ways of communicating an acceptable form of payment. This is a thought process used a lot in the education sector as it allows children to develop social skills, and communicate their needs.

Non-verbal cues are a start, learning what your child’s cues means means that you can better serve their needs without the frustration of trying and failing to communicate. Your child will be telling you from birth if they are uncomfortable for any reason. Most children will develop different cues for different things, by the time their a few months old. All of these cues which will appear before the tears begin in a sense, their developing a method of communicating exclusively though body language, you just need to learn how to read it.

Continuing from that, key signs are now being encouraged in childcare centres across the board, these are signs are taken from your country’s sign language that communicate needs. We encourage children to learn the signs for more, please, thank you, water and toilet so that they can communicate non-verbally. This concept serves two purposes, children who are exposed to sign language early will learn to sign, before they learn words. Children who are signed to, with a spoken word as a secondary support will start using the sign, between 6 months to a year old. The second reason why we teach key signs is that it takes the guess work out of servicing a child. You think about it, if a child can ask for a need to be met, you can meet that need exactly. The younger you are when you start, the easier it is to learn a new language and sign language is no exception, and unlike other languages, you as the parent don’t have to be fluent. You can learn the basics from watching it on TV. Again, you also only retain the sounds, or signs, that you regularly use in person, so if your child learns a second language, they need to use it regularly, and be consistent. Like everything with children if you introduce change, they adapt and change with you. If you want your child to be communicative in sign language, you need to communicate with them whilst using it yourself.   

First words are always cute moments shared between a parent and a child. Most of the time this moment happens when a child is between 18 months and 2 and a half years but language development is a bit more complex than that. Language development starts as soon as you speak your first word to your child, each baby is born with a preset group of sounds, as your child ages their brain keeps just the ones your child needs to communicate with you, it’s primary caregivers. This is why babbling is normally sounds that you hear in your language.

Watch your language. The other thing children are good at is picking up things their not suppose to. A good ‘god-dammit’ is sometimes needed to ease your mind I get it, I do it to. As an educator I use ‘G’ rated alternatives such as fudge, crap, shoot and jeebiz, to air my frustrations in such a way that won’t offend a parent when there child repeats it at home. I also believe that words are words and they only have the meaning that we assign to them. Some words can never mean anything nice, nor will I drop a curse word around my 91 year old grandmother because any use of them will offend her, I will use them around my father, friends and other relatives. Its not about the word, Its about your audience and the meaning you assign, teaching that difference is valuable because it allows you child to express themselves in a way that is suitable for the environment there in.

Last but not least activity of the week, edible dirt.

Kids like to eat weird things, not all of which are suitable for human consumption, kids also like to get involved so lets do some food safe gardening.

You will need:

2 part starch

1 part neutral oil

1 part coca powder

Plastic plants - I prefer the seaweed that comes with sea animal bath toys.

Mix your starch, oil and coca powder together to make a crunch sand like texture. Spread this out over your tray and place the plants over the top. Show your child how to ‘plant’ your plants in your ‘soil’.