Turn Taking

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 February 2009 06:37 Tuesday, 10 February 2009 06:11

Turn Taking is an important skill for a young child to develop.  Communication is a give and take process much like taking turns.  Of course many young children are still learning to share and taking turns with their toys.  However, turn taking to help promote language skills looks a little different.

Turn taking for language refers to the back and forth interaction whether it is with gestures, signs, sounds, or words.  Basically, you want your child use the same number of communicative turns as you.  For young children learning to talk this involves more silence on the part of the caregiver. 

To help promote turn taking skills you can pause and look expectantly at your child and wait for him to do or say something to communicate with you.  For instance you can roll a ball back and forth and wait for your child to indicate that he wants the ball back.  You can also blow bubbles with your child and wait for your child to do or say something to let you know that he wants more bubbles.  Imiitate your child.  For a baby you can imitate the babbling and wait for your baby to babble again to imitate him.  For a toddler you can imitate his words or actions and play a game of copycat.  Imitate your child's play activities.  For instance, if your child hits a toy with his hand you can hit the toy with your hand.  This takes the child's actions and brings you into his world and makes his play time an opportunity to communicate.

Turn taking is a major skill that a child needs in order to build a solid foundation of language skills.  Children who struggle with this area may not see the joy in communicating and are not motivated to learn language.   For a child who is in his/her "own little world" you want to focus on this strategy because a child needs this skill to be strong in order to build quality language skills.