More strategies ⬇️

🌟Here's a throwback to when my 4 year old was 10 months old.

GET FACE TO FACE
Positioning yourself so you can get face to face is a total game changer when it comes to reading. I did a whole youtube video on it - just search "Zazi reading".

When you're face to face, you can see your child's eye line and what they're looking at. We know that children learn language best around what they're interested in, so it's WAY MORE POWERFUL for you to talk about what they're looking at than to just power your way through the book.

JOINT CONNECTION is also developed through more face to face time. Joint connection is when two people pay attention to the same thing then LET EACH OTHER KNOW they are engaged and sharing the moment. They do this by using eye contact, gesturing or saying something about the thing they're paying attention to.
It's a skill that develops from around 4 months onwards and it's a key social communication skill.
Children who are on the autism spectrum often have difficulties with joint attention.
Here you can see August looking at me to check in that I'm seeing what he's doing. This can only happen because of my positioning.

SPEECH SOUNDS
When your child can see your face they can see how your mouth makes sounds. CRUCIAL for speech sound development.

TURN TAKING
We give off all kinds of social cues to signal that we've finished our turn and it's someone else's turn. We rarely have conversations where we aren't facing the other person. Positioning yourself so you can be face to face supports your little one to take turns with you - the foundations of a conversation.

Save this reel for later and share with your parent friends who are supporting their little ones to talk!
You've got this.

Watch the full reel here