The Interaction Coach

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Your child needs to develop fine motor skills in their fingers before they are ready to use writing or pointing.

At Level Two, your…

Sharing a book can be a calming activity before bed.

Today’s activity: Use a book with one or two sentences per page. Use a soothing voice to help with a calm transition to sleepy-time.

Send your que…

Environmental print includes pictures, symbols and words that are found in the world around us.

At Level Two, real objects are the best way for your child to learn about the world. However, calling a…

Early literacy skills include book handling and recognizing pictures.

Your child will enjoy interacting with books with you. You can model how to pat the book page or point to a picture while you nam…

You will notice your child has a favorite sound they use in babbling.

You can start to introduce the next step of imitation skills, but don’t expect your child to imitate consistently at this level.

…

Mouthing helps your child learn about coordinating their mouth muscles and articulators (like their lips and tongue) that they need for making speech sounds.

Children naturally put everything into th…

You can help your child learn about the meaning expressed in your voice and facial expression by making them exaggerated. This calls attention to what you’re doing so it’s easier for your child to no…

Your child will do lots of babbling at this level, experimenting with many different sounds. They learn to control their voice and mouth movements.

If your child does not babble much, have their hear…

When you appear as your child is making a sound, they learn that they can call for you. They will learn they can make you appear when they use their voice.

Today’s activity: When you hear your child …

We express meaning with words, but also with our intonation and body language. Your child is learning this from your examples at this level, while practicing the sounds they can make and the reasons …

Object permanence is the understanding that an object exists even when we can’t see it. Knowing this helps a child learn that a symbol (word) can represent an object that is not present.

At Level Two…

Using a word consistently in a situation helps a child attach meaning to that word. Your child’s name is one of the first words they learn to recognize.

Today’s activity: Use your child’s name to get…

Your child must hear speech clearly so they can learn to make the sounds of speech clearly. Many children get fluid in their middle ears (otitis media) that can stay for weeks or months.

Today’s acti…

Language is the whole system we use for expressing our ideas, including sentences, words, grammar, sounds, intonation, etc. Speech (spoken words) is one modality we express language. Other modalities…

Your child rolls over by lifting their legs in the air and then moving them to the side so they roll onto their side.

After your child starts raising their legs on their own, you can help your child …

Your child can learn the opposite of a sit-up exercise, raising their feet up to their chin.

Movement skills are important for exploring to learn more about things around them. If you notice a delay …

Movement is important so your child can explore their surroundings and learn more about their world—so they have more to talk about!

At Level Two, you child spends a lot of time exercising their musc…

Use child-safe toys that entice your child to try to reach them. When items are just out of reach, your child gets good exercise.

Encouraging your child to explore independently builds their initiati…

You’ll see your child’s skills at picking up and holding things as you play back and forth with a ball. At first they will pick it up and wave it. By the end of this level they will be swatting the b…

When your child wants to accept a new toy from you, they’ll drop an object that’s already in their hand.

The activity for today is an example of how you can start a habit at an early level that will …