Take a Pause

One of the best tips that I give out to parents when I work with kids is to take some time to let the kids respond. This is called “expectant waiting.” In these interactions, the parents or clinician would have modeled a word many times within a certain activity or song. Then, they perform the action or song again, but wait for the child to “fill in the gap” or say the word. Some examples of this include saying “Ready, Set…” and then the child responds “Go!” and you and the child race into a room. Another example is with songs. You can say “Head, shoulders, knees, and…” and the child may respond with “toes!” The key is to make sure you are giving them enough space to say the word to end the phrase, but also finding a “sweet spot” of not requesting it too much. To counter-balance this, the best thing I say to parents is to say the full phrase two times and then wait, then say the full phrase 1-2 times again. This way, the child does not feel like they are doing all the work and, instead, still find the activity engaging and reciprocal.

More early on tips to come!