Learn With Less

Transcript of this week’s “Developmental Thought,” an excerpt from the full episode.

For additional information, music, play ideas and the complete interactive family experience, please listen to the entire episode. 

When we play with language, we integrate play into everything we do! Around the 12-18 month age range is the age when you typically start to hear a child start to utter their first words.

Obviously, this doesn’t just magically happen overnight, right? There are a lot of factors that we know go into the healthy and robust development of a young child’s communication, even before they verbalize any actual words. I’ll speak more about these in future episodes, but for now, I’ll mention some of those we’ve already touched upon in previous episodes.

One of the big factors in the development of early speech and language development is that term we discussed in Episode 1, “Why Sing?” – I mentioned “joint attention” being an important part of communication development.

Again, it’s that shared attention between you and your child on some outside “thing,” where you’re both communicating somehow that you’re both interested in that same “thing.”

Another big part of what goes into a child’s developing expressive vocabulary (the words that they say) is, as you might imagine, their receptive vocabulary (the words that they understand).

So, the more words your baby has heard you use around him over time, and the more opportunities he has to start to learn their meaning, the more he is able to understand.

Older babies are playing a lot with their voices, as well, and we can think of this vocal play as the precursor to speaking words. They are putting sounds together, playing with different consonant-vowel combinations, playing with intonation and phrasing (again, much like singing!) .

So the more we can make this vocal play into an interactive activity (whether it’s taking turns babbling, singing, or verbalizing), the more we are encouraging vocal turn-taking… which of course, is what conversation is! A silly tool like this microphone can be really useful to focus on joint attention and interaction. 

One of the things you’ll notice I often encourage you to do here at Learn With Less is to play with language, and play around with the words or meaning of a familiar song. One of the reasons I do this is because, as I mentioned last week in my Routines & Rituals episode, repetition with variation is great for young children.

In the context of music, it allows your baby to really process the sounds and patterns of songs – and when we change the words or the rhythm or the motions, we do so within an already familiar context. This highlights different aspects or elements of an experience. In this way, your little one’s brain is working to integrate and distinguish the familiar from the unfamiliar.

One reason why I really encourage this type of vocal play – is… because the more you play with words and language and your voice, the more likely it is that your baby will, as well! We know that infants are imitative, even from the very, very beginning! They are looking at our faces, always integrating new information and filing and sorting and storing for later.

The playful, flexible nature of language within song or rhyme helps us as grown-ups really focus on the interaction, and helps us get back in touch with that playful part of us from which our young children benefit so much.

Another big reason I encourage flexibility and playfulness with language within song is because we don’t always remember the words to those nursery rhymes once knew as children. I cannot tell you how often I started a rhyme or a tune, and then paused, realizing I had no idea how the rest of it went.

If we give ourselves a break and allow ourselves to play with language, we then break free from the confines of our rigid adult selves – and start to become more creative.

Whether that means taking words out all together and humming a tune, singing only on “la,” replacing all the words with your baby’s name, tapping to the rhythm without the tune, or making up an entirely new verse with your own rhyming words, give yourself permission to let yourself go!

Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest

The post How Playing With Language Helps Your Baby Learn To Communicate appeared first on Learn With Less.

In this episode, Ayelet discusses the topics of routines and rituals.

We cover ways to maximize routines with infants and toddlers by embedding them with value – promoting the inherent ways they promote development, and helping us enjoy the interaction!

Below is a transcript of this week’s “Developmental Thought,” an excerpt from the full episode.

For additional information, music, play ideas and the complete interactive family experience, please listen to the entire episode.

Last week, we spoke briefly about routines and rituals, and now I’d like to delve into this a bit deeper.

First, I’d like to mention that what we can refer to as “caregiving routines” are often the most powerful opportunities for learning.

These are the experiences that babies have regularly and consistently throughout each and every day. Not only is your baby experiencing – and participating in – daily routines, she is also learning about interaction.

In addition, she will eventually learn to make predictions about what will come next and therefore anticipate transitions between activities more smoothly.

• waking up
• going to sleep
• bath time
• eating / nursing / feeding
• diaper changes

Even daily routines can become special moments for you and your baby – we know that it’s that social/emotional bond with one or more caregivers that really contributes to a young baby’s development.

I think it can be helpful sometimes to think about the fact that even changing your baby’s diaper can become a really stimulating, nurturing, rich moment between the two of you! Making these times more distinctive for you and your baby, and adding other special moments throughout the day to add “ritual” to your life, can be incredibly simple things!

You might sing a special song or say a particular phrase during these moments – it could be something you have heard or liked, or something a family member said to you when you were young. For instance, when your baby wakes up to start the day, you could look out the window and sing a little ditty about the sun, or talk about the weather outside.

Even saying something in a silly voice to prepare her for the next activity, like, “stiiiiinky diaper! It’s tiiiiiime for a new one!” will provide a consistent cue for your baby to learn what comes next, at the same time creating a unique ritual shared by the two of you!

You also might add your own rituals – these can be things you do on a daily basis or to mark special or rare occasions, highlighting different aspects of various events. Think about what you can do to transition from one part of the daily routine to the next.

I find that music can be a really powerful tool in this. When we introduce songs to mark different parts of our routines, we are using a really cool auditory experience to make associations. For example, we sing a hello song at the beginning of each of these episodes, and a good-bye song at the end. As you continue to listen, your baby will learn to associate these songs with the beginning and end of this experience… but you can take it further than that.

A good-bye song can really help with transitions, for instance. So a little one who doesn’t think she’s ready to get out of the bath might really benefit from additional types of cues than the standard “we’re going to get out in another minute.” Engaging your baby in the process of saying good-bye to all the bath things, making it into a game where you wait for her to point to the next one before you sing to it, or simply going around to each item and singing about every one “good-bye to the duck, good-bye to the water, good-bye to the spout, good-bye to the shampoo!” allows her to feel like the fun is still happening, lightening the mood even though it signals a transition out of her preferred activity.

Making a habit of these types of silly interventions in the early days before your baby has an opinion one way or the other about it can help keep everybody on track. It may not work every time, but it’s a tool.

Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest

The post How Routines and Rituals Support Infants and Toddlers appeared first on Learn With Less.

In this episode, Ayelet discusses some of the innate ways speech, language, and music are connected. Music is the framework used to connect with young children here at Learn With Less, and in this episode of the podcast, you’ll learn about some of the ways that’s done. 

Below is the transcript of this week’s “Developmental Thought,” an excerpt from the full episode.

For additional information, music, play ideas and the complete interactive family experience, please listen to the entire episode. 

As parents and caregivers, we hear people say things like, “oh, play music for your baby,” “sing to your baby!” We hear, “it’s important and useful to expose your baby to music and rhythms and songs…” but WHY?

There’s a term that is often used in early learning and child development, called “joint attention” – this is essentially the shared attention between you and your child upon another “thing” – an object or event.

It’s not merely that you are both looking at the same thing, but that you’re both using words, gestures, gaze, or other non-verbal communication to understand that you’re both interested in the same object or event.

This is a crucial piece of communication (and something that usually happens sometime in the later part of the first year of life), and also it’s crucial to the act of being musical in a group. 

• Vocabulary and phrasing patterns or grammatical structures (sentences, questions / commands / statements)
• Expressions of feelings and thoughts (through our physical actions, words, tone of voice, and facial expressions)
• Attention and listening skills – hey, you’re not just entertaining your child! You’re interacting uninterruptedly with a focus! Think about how rare this kind of interaction is becoming in the age of technology!

So, good work!

Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest

The post Music and Communication Development appeared first on Learn With Less.