Talking with Babies

As parents and caregivers of our eight Infant South babies, we are very familiar with talking to very young, preverbal children. As I sit close to babies exploring their environment or one another...or when a baby and I are interacting, I am often thinking about my words and trying to strike a balance between offering a valuable response or acknowledgement of what they are doing, and being still and quiet enough as to not distract them during a moment of discovery. Our babies are all on their way to developing speech as they coo and babble, some adding syllables to their repertoire, and their vocalizations often call for and deserve a verbal response from us.

This idea of how we talk with babies -- not just at or around them -- is something I would like to explore more with our teaching team and with all of you. That's why I was glad to stumble across an article online entitled Pretending to Understand What Babies Say Can Make Them Smarter. 

The title intrigued me, because I knew it could not be that simple. Spending most of my days with babies, I know, as Dilcia discussed in her post, that there is no "fast track" to, or simple recipe for intelligence. Babies learn when given the chance to direct their own learning, with us caregivers as facilitators and one of the three teachers (parents, educators, and the environment) in a Reggio-inspired approach. I also wondered how genuine my interactions with babies would be if I just "pretended" to understand them. I do think though, we are pretending -- in an intentional way -- to understand our babies' indecipherable utterances. We draw inferences and make connections between their sounds and actions and show them we are listening, until the sounds become syllables, which will eventually become words...phrases...sentences...

I enjoyed the author's funny anecdote and that she admitted that "talking to small children is hard."  That's why I think it feels refreshing when I have moments where I really feel as though I am conversing with our babies, just as with other adults. 

The short article, which I have attached to this week's e-mail and pasted as a link below, references research published in the journal, Infancy, describing observed interactions between mothers and their infants, eight months or older, in which they coded their responses to the babies' babbling: 

"'Redirective' responses involved turning the babies' attention elsewhere...while 'sensitive' responses were ones where the mothers verbally replied to or imitated their sounds." The results (summarized) showed that infants whose mothers used more "sensitive" responses had increased rates of consonant-vowel vocalizations, and also were more likely to direct their sounds toward their mothers, as if "speaking" to them. *

What does this mean for us, the members of our classroom community? I have to point out that I do not believe adults need to wait until babies are eight months -- or any specific age -- to converse with them. I hear parents and teachers doing this with babies of all ages every day. After reviewing all the videos we have taken since mid-January, I found one that really resonated with the connections I have been drawing between my balance-seeking, reading, and day-to-day experiences with teachers, parents, and babies. 

This video of Dilcia and Oscar, although amazingly beautiful, is not meant to be instructional. However, I thought we could all use it to reflect on how we communicate with our babies, because we know, despite the absence of words, they have something to say. I am very interested to hear your thoughts about this video, the article, the questions below, and this topic in general!

How would you describe your experience talking with your child?

What impact do you think the ASL we use at school (and at home if you are using it) is having on your baby's language development?

What insight can you give us about communicating with your baby, so we may make connections between language development at school and at home?

With love and care,
Christina (with Amara, Dilcia, and Susie)


*Romm, Cari. Pretending to Understand What Babies Say Can Make Them Smarter. The Atlantic. 8.29.14 http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/pretending-to-understand-what-babies-say-can-make-them-smarter/379324/ 

SEE, THINK, WONDER Video Observation

Will you help us SEE, THINK, WONDER?

Last week during our team meeting we watched this video and did rounds of See- Think -Wonder. It is so interesting to hear everyone's thoughts since we all see, think, and wonder a bit differently. Originally the idea was to post the thoughts we shared at the meeting on our wall. Since Debbie mentioned that it would be a good idea to share this video with the parents, we decided to share it with everyone so that we can post what you see, think and wonder also. We would LOVE to hear from our parents! You can reply with as many see, think and/or wonder as you'd like. Even one thought is greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Your Infant South Teachers

This Week in Pictures

Rui had fun exploring outside during an unseasonably warm start to February. 

Hard to believe this week went from 60 degrees on Monday to a snowstorm on Friday. 

Anika, frequently seen in happy baby pose. 

Nate did splits in the Bear Block while rolling a ball in a cup and banging it on the mirror.

Edith started exploring the threshold between the carpet and the kitchen. 

Adi was full of smiles when Katie brought paper to the room for everyone. 

Theo seemed amused to be able to look through the door while climbing on the bench. 

Anika and Anaïs spent a lot of time learning about one another. 

Oscar approached Nate and became a footrest for Anaïs. 

How We Teach and How They Learn

How We Teach and How They Learn

A few weeks ago someone asked me what I did for work, and I answered by saying that I was a teacher at a children's center. Then she asked what age group I taught, and I replied, "I work with babies." This person then said, "You're an infant teacher--what do you teach babies?" I admit the smile on this person's face did not surprise me. She seemed like she just did not understand how an infant can be taught. So here I am writing about being a teacher, a person who does not need to be an instructor, but a mentor, a guide who pays attention and supports a child’s need and curiosity by providing them with the necessary tools to further their natural learning. It's not about sitting in front of a baby and showing them what to do and expect them to just learn it. It's about observing, researching, and learning together.  

“According to psychologist Jean Piaget, infants construct their knowledge of the world by exploring with their bodies and senses.  Your baby is born with all her senses intact, although her sense of touch, taste, and smell, and hearing are initially more developed than her vision.  As infants mature, they use all their senses to absorb everything that’s going on around them.  Your infant is learning all the time, whether she is mouthing a rattle, batting at an activity board, playing peek-a-boo, pulling books off the shelves, watching trees sway in the breeze, or simply gazing into your face.  Much of your baby’s brain development happens after she is born.  The experiences that your baby has in the first years of her life lay the foundation for later learning.” From ‘How a Baby Learns,’ Infant South’s Welcome Packet.

As a Reggio inspired center we believe that you, the parent, are your child's first teacher, we are the second teacher, and the environment is the third teacher. We teachers are responsible for providing a stimulating, supportive, enriching, and developmentally appropriate environment for babies to learn while they work through play. We provide them with interesting and real life objects so that they utilize all of their senses to learn about these materials. We flood them with language and give them space to socially interact with adults and peers. We give them opportunities to learn to problem solve on their own when safe to do so as well as opportunities to test their limits. Babies build knowledge through these explorations; interacting with others; and life experiences. How we guide and support them shows what kind of a teacher we are.

What might your Babies be learning in these pictures?

 

Babies need stimulation with the experience of moving, listening, touching, and observing to learn about their world.  

-Dilcia

                                                                                                  

Arriving After Break and Reconnecting

Last Time We Were Together...

HEAR, Think, Wonder...

Lately, as I watch videos of our babies in the classroom -- working, interacting, enjoying their environment -- I have been thinking about how our "See, Think, Wonder" protocol helps us to delve deeper in our understanding of what may be happening during a particular moment. We teachers use this protocol as we write learning stories about a moment or moments that spark our interest and curiosity, and while studying videos together, and we invite you to see, think, and wonder about our documentation.

Sometimes, while watching a video together, we use the "see" prompt to objectively point out what we notice not only with our eyes, but with our ears as well.

I started to think about the power of different forms of communication and expression our babies exhibit. When we look at them, we can see their facial expressions, actions, and body language and use these to hypothesize what they may be feeling or thinking...they may show they are tired by rubbing their eyes or putting their head on the carpet...they might express interest in what a peer is working on by turning their head to face them and opening their eyes wide...they can show they trust their caregivers by touching our faces or laying their head on our shoulders.

What about the things we can hear our babies doing? When we spend time with babies or watch a video, we can often hear sounds to accompany what we see...but what if we only focused on the sounds? I decided to take "video" (really "audio") in the classroom and listen and invite all of you to listen as well.

Can we construct meaning in a different way by only hearing and not seeing what our babies are doing?

What do you HEAR, THINK, and WONDER when you listen to this recording?

Thank you for participating in this experiment together with us -- I look forward to your interpretations!

With care,
Christina (with Amara, Dilcia, and Susie)