Everything Grows out of Productive Roles
A child’s drive for learning comes from their interest in everything that captures their attention. They explore what they can do with objects and experiment to figure out how things work. While they’re so eager to learn, it’s easy to build more and more learning opportunities in everyday activities by offering a child many different productive roles. A productive role for a baby is using an action with an object in an activity you are doing together.
Everything babies need to learn can grow out of productive roles. Discovering what they can do with objects leads to learning to talk and pretend — and that launches imagination. This can be done simply by parents asking, “What are my hands doing right now that I can teach my child to do?” This can be as easy as helping a child stir cookie batter, scoop dog food into a bowl, turn pages in a book, or raise their arms to get their shirt on.
Flip through our 16 Actions with Objects by 16 Months Lookbook to learn the age babies use new actions each month from 9 to 16 months. The photos give you lots of ideas of different roles for babies. For example, babies start dropping objects at 9 months and, with a little help, they can drop a napkin in the trash. They start taking objects out at 10 months and can help you pull clothes out of the dryer.
To get more ideas, our Social Communication Growth Charts have hundreds of video clips of children from 1 to 24 months of age interacting in everyday activities with their families. There are lots of examples showing parents expanding the roles of their child in many different kinds of activities. Families can get to our Social Communication Growth Charts by joining Baby Navigator. They can join when they’re pregnant, as soon as their baby is born, or any time until their baby’s 2nd birthday at 24 months. Parents can track their baby’s progress and learn how to encourage the magic of learning to talk.
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Join our free Baby Navigator webinar, What does it take to learn to talk? at 1:00pm ET on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. We watch videos together that show how to turn activities parents are already doing everyday into learning moments for their baby. We welcome parents and anyone interested in being amazed at how babies learn to talk. Read more and register.
Productive roles in everyday activities can make a big difference in a young child’s learning and development and open the door to so much more. Spread the word by sharing this email with professionals, families, and friends in your social networks.