Category: Serve & Return

When you’re changing your child, make a funny sound. How do they respond? By smiling? Kicking their legs? Making a sound? Try a new sound and see what they do. Keep adding new ones to the mix!

During a quiet moment, sit or lay down near your child face-to-face and be silent for a few seconds. Watch them. Do they look at you? If they make sounds or smile, make sounds or smile back. There is so much you can say to each other with no words at all!

Sing, or turn on music, and dance with your child! See if they can copy what you do with your feet. Try stomping one foot three times. What do they do? Copy their moves and build on them by adding a jump or going on tiptoe. Do they do it too? Keep the dance going!

Put on a song both of you like and watch your child move. As they dance, copy what they’re doing. When they stop, you dance around and let them watch you. See if you can create a back and forth dance, taking turns copying each other.

Take a few minutes and look into your child’s eyes. As they look back, smile and talk with them. Do what they do. If they blink, you blink. If they look left, you look left. Let them see your eyes too, and have fun keeping eye contact.

Let your child pick a fun, fast song to dance to. Take turns making up dance moves. They can start, then you copy them. Keep going back and forth as you both repeat the moves and add new one. Before you know it you will have a whole dance routine!

Ask your child, “Can you do what I do?” Walk forward or backward, bend down, or reach up high. Talk with them about what you’re doing like, “Touch your toes and touch the sky!” Then give them a turn to lead. Change the game and see if they can do the opposite of what you… Continue reading Copy Play

Let your child pick a fun, fast song to dance to. Ask them to make a dance move and then copy what they do. Take turns going back and forth copying each other’s dance moves.

Offer your child a whole fruit or vegetable, like an apple. Ask questions about what the apple looks like, feels like, and smells like before cutting it. After you cut it, talk about what you both notice. What does it look like, smell like, and feel like now? Does it always taste the same?

Ask your child to touch the clothes you’re both wearing. Talk back and forth about how they feel. You could say, “We’re both wearing shirts. Mine is smooth and yours is wrinkled.” Take turns using as many words as you can to describe how your clothes feel.