Lost in translation

Having helped your child tune in and develop their listening skills (see Listen as you walk), and by slowing down to give your child a chance to try to speak (see Stop look listen )it's now time for you to tune in and acknowledge your child's attempts at speech...

"Mummy...mummy...MUMMY! You weren't listening to me!"


For those children who can't yet talk, or who haven't learned the importance of doing so, we need to encourage them and build their confidence that every sound (or gesture) is important and can be understood. They need us to translate, to bring them into the world of chats, communication and interaction. So we need to listen!

Have fun on those sound walks?? Hear some things your littlie said that you hadn't noticed before?

It's not always easy to translate for a non verbal child.  But context gives tons of clues, so watch what your littlie is doing, looking at, or pointing towards.  Don't worry if you're not sure what they 'said', better to have a guess based on what you see them doing than to stay silent.  It doesn't matter if you get it wrong, I have many times, but just think how rewarding it will be when your littlie smiles and confirms that you have got it right after all...

"Uh" he says with his arms outstretched... "Up, you said up!" You say.

Often children who are late to talk, are looking for reassurance that they are doing the right thing and are being understood.  By 'translating' you are not only showing that you've heard them, but that you understand and are going to respond straight away.  You are also providing the child with a template of the correct sounds to help them develop their pronunciation, as well as reinforcing the child's understanding of the word they are trying to communicate.

The same style of commenting and translating can be done with children who are using movements or gesture and who are unable to develop speech in the same way.  For example a reach towards something could mean "more" or if your littlie stiffens/stills to something, it could mean either "more" or "stop", depending on the context.

If you are trying to develop language, and your littlie is not using many spoken words, try to keep it simple and only say one or two words back to them.  

Try to make a conscious decision to listen to your child this week. Translate every sound they make that you think should have been a word.  What have they ended up telling you?  I'd love to hear...

Katie

Listen as you walk

Ever been listening to the radio for the weather forecast and missed it because you were washing up?

That's because we as adults, have learned to filter out background noise. Our children have sometimes learned to block out all of the sounds before they know which are the important ones.

Listen, don't just hear
To help our children to listen to the sounds around them and not just hear them, we need to let them know they are important and point out that they have meaning.

When you're walking down the road, or in the park, or just pottering at home getting all the jobs done (ha! Yea right!) you can listen to all the noises and point them out to your little one. Some are loud - Hoover, shower, lawnmower, tractor, aeroplane, lorry etc. some are quiet - birds cheeping, boiling kettle, tap dripping, clock ticking, bicycle, etc.

Have fun with listening

Remember Stop Look Listen?  My previous post was about pausing before speaking, and similar principles apply now: "oh," you gasp! "What was THAT noise? ... Listen... ..." Then, kneel down to be at the same level as your little one, and just point. 

By doing that and not constantly commenting on everything you can hear, helps littlies focus on those important noises and automatically makes it a game. 

Switch it off!

None of this will be easy if you have the telly or radio on, even quietly.  So sorry if you're addicted to the Radio in the morning, or Reality TV during the day, but you're going to have to turn it off. Not down, but off!

What to expect

Recently, I've suggested this type of activity to a few families whose children aren't speaking. After focusing on this pre-speech activity for 6-8 weeks, the children are now much more vocal in nursery, they are using a wider range of sounds at home, and are attaching meaning to those sounds (i.e. pointing and making a noise). The children are involving the adults much more, and have developed shared attention - they want to involve others in their world and activities. Once children are tuning in and have a level of shared attention, they may be ready to start to listen to sounds for speech...

What other listening games do you play?  Leave me a comment below to let me know!