Joyce talks about a course for parents who want resources, coaching or therapy services that directly address their child’s communication needs. Find out more here. 

Today’s activity: Hold one object in each hand and offer both to your child. Encourage your child to take one object.

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Alternating attention between two objects helps your child learn to scan their vision between two objects, which will help them when they want to make choices between objects.

The activity helps your child learn to recognize your signals for what you want them to pay attention to. Use gestures, movements, tone of voice, facial expression to demonstrate your attention.

Today’s activity: Hold one object in each hand in front of your child. Make a noice and/or wiggle one object. If your child does not look at the indicated object, move that one object closer to the child. After they see the object, move it back even with the other object. Make that second object interesting and encourage your child to look at that object. After your child has noticed both objects, offer them both within reach and allow your child to take one.

Find more resources to support your child’s development of speech, language and communication at www.TheInteractionCoach.com.

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Attention to objects helps your child learn about their world. They can pay attention with their vision or hearing.

Today’s activity: Use a variety of child-safe objects that make sounds to attract your child’s attention.

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Find more resources to support your child’s development of speech, language and communication at www.TheInteractionCoach.com.

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Attention to objects lays the foundation for learning concepts. As they explore their world, they learn about the characteristics of objects.

Your child’s attention becomes more focused during this level. They learn new connections between what they are doing and the results they observe.

Today’s activity: Hold a toy off to the side, out of your child’s line of sight. Make a sound with the toy. If your child doesn’t turn to look, move the object into their line of sight and make the sound again. Move the toy slowly so they start to see it and may turn their head as they catch sight of it.

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Find more resources to support your child’s development of speech, language and communication at www.TheInteractionCoach.com.

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Your child is refining and expanding the ways they can respond to you. At the same time, you are becoming more aware of the body signals they are sending that let you know their interests and preferences.

Today's activity: Use your awareness of your child’s body cues to decide when and for how long you engage in your social play routines. Extend the length of time without getting to the point of overload,

Find more resources to support your child’s development of speech, language and communication at www.TheInteractionCoach.com.

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Music is another way for your child to learn about sounds and voices.

Today’s activity: Move in time to music to help your child feel the rhythm. Sing to associate your voice and intonation with the feeling of the music. Use a lullaby as a calming routine.

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Find more resources to support your child’s development of speech, language and communication at www.TheInteractionCoach.com.

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Vocal inflections are the expressiveness you put into your voice—such as surprise, excitement, scolding, soothing.

Using exaggerated vocal inflections helps your child notice the importance of these subtle cues. They start to associate these tones of voice with the feelings and experiences you are sharing during your interaction,

Today’s activity: Use exaggerated vocal inflections during your interactions to model the meaning expressed with your voice.

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Joyce confesses to a mistake she made when shaping her grandson’s responses during a play routine in Level Two.

Extinction is when a behavior disappears from use because it is not being reinforced.

Extinction is very useful when you are aware of consciously using it, For example, if you do not respond to a behavior you do not want your child using, the behavior will extinguish if you consistently do not respond to it, Consistency is the key,

Extinction can be a problem when a child needs a skill but it is not reinforced. Joyce uses the example of when older children stop using their word “no” to make a refusal because people do not acknowledge the message. In that situation, children find a more effective way to refuse.

Today’s activity: Add a play routine into a daily activity you share with your child.

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A social game is a shared activity where you enjoy spending time together by engaging in a familiar back-and-forth routine. Notice that this skill emerges as children are just learning to get another person’s attention and before they learn how to intentionally request things from people.

This episode describes the process of shaping. When you shape a behavior, you need to know where you’re headed but have the patience to accept small changes over time rather than expect a behavior to happen immediately.

Today’s activity: Be face-to-face with your child. Help child raise their arms over their head while you say, “Sooo big!” Put your hands down, then you take a turn modeling how you raise your arms and say, “Sooo big!” Alternate turns like this, but sometimes don’t take your child’s hands so they have an opportunity to move their arms on their own.

Read the Level Two summary in the blog.

Find more resources to support your child’s development of speech, language and communication at www.TheInteractionCoach.com.

Send your comments and questions to [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you!

Turn taking with sounds develops after your child has been doing some turn taking with movements.

Imitating sounds doesn’t just happen as soon as you start modeling sounds. We “shape” that response by being patient and providing lots of models, and giving strong, immediate reinforcement whenever the child imitates our sound.

At first you’ll just get wiggles, because that’s what your child knows. Then you’ll get an occasional sound. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THE SAME SOUND YOU JUST MADE. We reinforce the behavior of making any sound after I make a sound.

If your child makes a different sound, feel free to imitate that one now.

Today’s activity: Be face-to-face with your child. When your child makes a random sound, repeat that sound with enthusiasm. Wait. When the child responds with movement or sound, make the sound again. With lots of modeling, your child will start to respond with a sound more often.

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I can’t provide therapeutic advice specific to your child, but I’d love to answer questions about the concepts and methods discussed in the podcast. And tell me what you think—what else do you want to know?

Download the list of Level Two Targets and Activities.

Find more resources to support your child’s development of speech, language and communication at www.TheInteractionCoach.com.