The Interaction Coach

Your child enjoys learning about cause-and-effect by watching the outcome of their actions.

Today’s activity: Take turns while you play with blocks. Stack a few and a knock them down.

Visit www.TheIn…

Skills that develop at Level Three include: use one action with object; put things in and dump them out; pull string on toy.

During their play, your child's doing little science experiments that show…

If I do all these activities, does my child still need an SLP?

Read this blog post for an example of research on outcomes with and without support from a speech-language pathologist.

Children learn t…

Your child will develop more fine motor skills, with more control of their fingers and hands. They show an understanding of size and weight as they pick up small objects with one hand and larger obje…

Your child can learn to associate an object with the calming of sleep time. Use something you’ve observed your child to enjoy, like a soft texture or music.

Over time, your child will develop more ab…

Children’s definition of “fun” can vary. Be alert to how your child responds to different types of touch, sounds, sights, smells.

Use your child’s signals of enjoyment to build your social games that…

Affect is how we show our feelings. Engagement is how we show we are involved in an activity.

By the end of Level Three, your child is showing a variety of affect and recognizes some different tones …

Did you cause your child’s communication delay? No!

Can we speed your child’s progress in learning communication? Yes!

Communication develops as your child grows connections in their brain. We can he…

The more you respond to your child’s actions and sounds, the more they will use them. You are reinforcing their actions and showing them that their actions have an effect on their world.

Even though …

Your child will learn to imitate actions from familiar routines, try to attract your attention with their actions, and start to recognize some familiar cause-and-effect relationships.

Understanding c…

Learning joint attention helps your child learn that they can call your attention to an object. This will come in handy later when they need to ask you for help.

Today’s activity: Practice eye tracki…

You can shape your child’s use of joint attention. Start when you are already engaged with your child in an interaction. Add one object and make it very noticeable and appealing.

Today’s activity: En…

When your child is not using joint attention, they need lots of practice with you showing joint attention to their object of interest.

Today’s activity: Model joint attention by noticing what your ch…

Joint attention skills emerge by the end of Level Three. You’ll see your child look back and forth between your face and something they are touching that you are looking at.

Tracking a moving object …

Use a child-safe mirror for this activity.

Children enjoy watching themselves in the mirror. It’s another way to encourage attention to faces.

Today’s activity: Let your child watch their face in the…

Do parents cause their child’s speech-language delay? Can we speed up a child’s development of skills? Joyce shares her opinions.

Music can stimulate your child to move, which gives you another activ…

Encourage mutual attention by be face-to-face and animated.

Today’s activity promotes motor develop when your child wants to move closer to engage with you.

Today’s activity: Be just out of reach fro…

Clapping is a great gesture to begin using with your child. It helps you be enthusiastic, and it becomes a way to reinforce whatever your child is doing.

At first you will do the action while your ch…

Remember that each of these levels takes at least three months for your child to develop. We’re going for quality—not for speed.

Social games with gestures are a great way to introduce imitation skil…

Download the Level Three list of skills and activities to use as a checklist and reminder.

Social interaction is the foundation for human communication. Your child is learning to enjoy interaction an…