For the past few months, Matt and I have been taking an intense parent education class called, "It Takes Two To Talk," which follows the same titled workbook created by our great friends north of the border (Canada, for those of you geographically challenged!)
This class is designed to equip parents with strategies and extra support to use on a daily basis when interacting with your child to develop language. This hands-on class is with 5 other similarly-suited sets of families, and is led by a fantastic speech pathologist who then does video sessions of us with our children to provide feedback.
And we have homework and our guidebook to read, as well. Who knew the business of communicating with a 2 year old could be so multi-faceted and rigorous!
It has been a great support for me to hear from other moms, in particular, who struggle to communicate with their own children. It's a blessing to meet each week with others who understand us so well and who offer what had worked for them in their families, as well.
Many have asked what we are learning in this class. One thing they emphasize from the beginning is an acronym "O.W.L." which stands for Observe, Wait, and Listen. This is what we are do with our kiddos to see what they are interested in so that we can develop their communication skills around the things they are interested in (they learn best when we connect with what interests them most -- duh, isn't that how it is for us as adults, as well? How easily we forget!) So now, we have an OWL magnet on our fridge, compliments of our teacher, to remind us to OWL. If only she knew it's on our fridge with about 40 other animal magnets and kinda gets lost.
And I kinda get lost when OWLing, too! OWLing is harder than you think, but we're trying! One day at a time and with God's grace, we are trying!
No comments:
Post a Comment