Turn taking supports your child’s developing imitation skills. You can model the action with new materials, or use similar materials or actions in a new location. Adding something new keeps things interesting, but it’s still familiar enough to imitate easily.

Remember to use waiting as your first strategy for getting your child to take their turn. Look interested, excited, happy to be there!

Today’s activity: When your child is familiar with taking turns with a certain object, expand that activity to new places—like drumming on other objects.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to find courses for parents that help you target your child’s specific needs.

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Get early intervention information mentioned in the episode here.

Here’s the link to the short screener for finding your child’s level of communication development.

Turn taking lays the foundation for conversation skills. At Level 5 your child plays near peers but does not interact with peers during play.

Your child can pass a toy back and forth with you, taking turns using the toy for a simple action. They learn how to share by doing this with you.

Today’s activity: Use a toy for a simple action, like feeding a doll with a spoon. Take turns feeding the doll, passing the spoon back and forth with your child. Model how to include a peer in interactions. Model a cue like “soft touch” often.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to find courses for parents that help you target your child’s specific needs.

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Bubbles are great attention-getters! There are many ways to call attention to a bubble. Be sure to remember that joint attention includes checking the other person’s face sometimes.

Today’s activity: Model how to use joint attention while playing with bubbles. Point at a bubble, hold it on the wand, reach for and pop a bubble. Help your child notice your reactions, and pay attention to your child’s reactions.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to find courses for parents that help you target your child’s specific needs.

Help more parents find the podcast—leave a review in your app. Thanks!

Send your questions to [email protected].

Remember that parents don’t cause their child’s communication delay. They are, however, in the best position to provide frequent, enriched interactions that help their child focus on the most important information in the experience. These high-quality, high-frequency interactions are the best environment for learning.

At Level 5 your child will start pointing to call your attention to something. This is a meaningful gesture—a form of communication. Hurray!

Today’s activity: Notice what your child is paying attention to and shift your focus to that. Point at and name it to show that you notice. This shows your child how to shift to another person’s focus of attention and models how to point to show attention

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.

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Send your questions to [email protected].

Joint attention means both of you are sharing your attention toward some other interesting thing. You know you're sharing attention when you each are checking in with each other’s face.

Your child will follow your point or your eye gaze to see what you are paying attention to. They will know it’s interesting by your tone of voice and facial expression.

Don’t think of this as a following-directions type of activity. Make sure your child learns that we share joint attention because it’s interesting and fun. Joint attention is a foundation of communication. We communicate because we want to share experiences with someone, not so we can follow commands.

Today’s activity: Model and encourage joint attention by pointing with animation, looking between the object and your child’s face. Be sure to wait for your child to have time to notice and look. Make an object more interesting by touching or moving the object.

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.

Help more parents find the podcast—leave a review in your app. Thanks!

Download the list of targets and activities for Level 5 here. 

When your child learns a play routine, you can build on their knowledge by using the game in new ways. Expand on playing peek-a-boo by doing it in new locations or situations.

Peek-a-boo is a good way to get your child’s attention toward your face. Watch for a signal that your child wants to continue the game.

Today’s activity:  Play peek-a-boo going in and out of a room or tunnel. Pop up from behind a chair or other hiding spot. Say “peek” when you open the car door to get your child.

Send your questions to [email protected].

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.

Help more parents find the podcast—leave a review in your app. Thanks!

Download the list of targets and activities for Level 5 here. 

Mutual attention is important for your child’s learning. There’s lots of important information on your face—how you make speech sounds, how you feel about something, what you are looking at. Your child should learn to check in with your face frequently to get this information.

Today’s activity: Continue doing familiar songs and add a few new ones. Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Open Shut Them, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Where Is Thumkin, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Row Your Boat.

Send your questions to [email protected].

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.

Help more parents find the podcast—leave a review in your app. Thanks!

Download the list of targets and activities for Level 5 here.  

You started doing social games at earlier levels. Now your child can use them to initiate interactions with you. They can transfer the actions to new situations, and recognize and respond to some of the words.

Social games encourage mutual attention because fun actions are happening. Stay aware of encouraging your child to notice your face. Be animated and interesting.

Today’s activity:  Watch for times when you can notice your child initiating a familiar social game, or you can respond to a gesture as if they were initiating the game. Play a game in a new situation, like have a doll do the actions. Add one or two more new games.

Send your questions to [email protected].

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.

Help more parents find the podcast—leave a review in your app. Thanks!

Download the list of targets and activities for Level 5 here. 

Mutual attention means both of you are paying attention to each other. It includes noticing what the person is doing and noticing the person’s face.

There is a lot of information available on the face that helps your child learn about feelings and reactions, in addition to how you are forming speech sounds. Don’t overemphasize the idea of the more limited concept of eye contact.

Make sure to keep the emphasis on sharing the interaction, keeping it interesting and enjoyable.

Today’s activity: To help your child develop the habit of checking in with your face, position yourself face-to-face during interactions. Be animated and interesting with your face. Hold up an interesting object near your face before you give it to your child.

Send your questions to [email protected].

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.

Help more parents find the podcast—leave a review in your app. Thanks!

Any activity you do together with your child gives you opportunities to practice turn taking.

Today’s activity: Share a crayon while scribbling. You make a mark, then pass the crayon to your child. After they write, hold out your hand to request the crayon, You can model words like, “blue” or “my turn.”

Send your questions to [email protected].

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.

Help more parents find the podcast—leave a review in your app. Thanks!