E is for Engagement: Building Skills (THU)
Engagement is a key component of our interactions if we want to build the skills of little ones. Our goal is to do everything in our power to engage others, particularly our children, in life experiences. Our play and our actions and our words should all be in an effort to encourage others to join in. We want the baby to look at our face. We want toddlers to come when we call them. We want preschoolers to ask us to play with them. We want our school-agers to turn to us when they need help. So how do we create this engaging environment? Starting when they are infants, we work on this with games like peekaboo where we are expecting a baby to look at us when we say peekaboo and respond. A baby typically responds with joy, making it an enjoyable exchange for both parties. This sets up a precedent that when playing a game with mommy or daddy is fun. It is something they then want to do again so the baby joins in (engages) to do their part to keep it ...


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