Send your questions and requests to me at [email protected]

Your child needs to develop fine motor skills in their fingers before they are ready to use writing or pointing.

At Level Two, your child is developing more control of reaching and grasping. They need experience holding a variety of shapes.

Today’s activity: Encourage your child to play with toys, spoons, other objects they can wrap their fingers around.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com for more information and support.

Sharing a book can be a calming activity before bed.

Today’s activity: Use a book with one or two sentences per page. Use a soothing voice to help with a calm transition to sleepy-time.

Send your questions and requests to me at [email protected]

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com for more information and support.

Environmental print includes pictures, symbols and words that are found in the world around us.

At Level Two, real objects are the best way for your child to learn about the world. However, calling attention to environmental print helps your child begin to notice and recognize the information on flat surfaces.

Exploring a child-safe book independently helps your child learn about books and pages, and lets them explore the pictures that interest them.

Today’s activity: Point out and read pictures on a blanket, toy or other environmental objects (in addition to books).

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!

Early literacy skills include book handling and recognizing pictures.

Your child will enjoy interacting with books with you. You can model how to pat the book page or point to a picture while you name the picture.

On their own, a child will shake a book, pat the page, put it in their mouth, and open the book.

If you help your child point to a picture, avoid holding their hand. You can lift under their elbow to guide their arm into the area you want them to touch. We want children to learn they are in charge of their body and their actions.

Today’s activity: Encourage your child to look at the book by patting and pointing.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!

You will notice your child has a favorite sound they use in babbling.

You can start to introduce the next step of imitation skills, but don’t expect your child to imitate consistently at this level.

Joyce describes how she shaped the wiggly game, which included vocal imitation, with her grandson Oliver. See the blog post and video.

Today’s activity: Use your child’s favorite sound to initiate vocal play. Make the sound and wait for a response. Accept any kind of response, and continue to model the sound.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!

Mouthing helps your child learn about coordinating their mouth muscles and articulators (like their lips and tongue) that they need for making speech sounds.

Children naturally put everything into their mouth, which gives them lots of opportunities for learning.

A speech-language pathologist can help when your child resists different textures in their mouth or rejects foods.

Today’s activity: Provide a variety of child-safe objects for the child to explore.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!

You can help your child learn about the meaning expressed in your voice and facial expression by making them exaggerated. This calls attention to what you’re doing so it’s easier for your child to notice and make connections.

Helping your child notice the important detail is an important mediation method.

Today’s activity: During your interactions, put extra emphasis on your vocal intonation and your facial expressions.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!

Your child will do lots of babbling at this level, experimenting with many different sounds. They learn to control their voice and mouth movements.

If your child does not babble much, have their hearing checked.

Today’s activity: When face-to-face with your child, repeat back the sound your child just made. This is the first step in learning how to imitate.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!

When you appear as your child is making a sound, they learn that they can call for you. They will learn they can make you appear when they use their voice.

Today’s activity: When you hear your child babbling or using a loud voice, move into view and say “Hi,” or say their name.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!

We express meaning with words, but also with our intonation and body language. Your child is learning this from your examples at this level, while practicing the sounds they can make and the reasons they interact with you.

Your child is learning they can have an effect on other people. When they wiggle or make sounds, they can get you to look at them, or come to them or talk to them. They are learning to initiate interactions, which is really important at all levels of communication.

In older children, initiation can fade away (extinguish) because people no longer respond to their attempts. Make sure you are showing your child that you value their initiations.

Today’s activity: Give attention when your child wiggles or makes a sound. Look and smile and, if there’s time, do a short back-and-forth social exchange.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!