From fidgety and fussy to calm and focused, thanks to a generous dose of wacky talk.

by Babs Hadjusiewicz April 22, 2009

So it's Wednesday and that means we get to play wacky word games with our listeners. And they are listening...to everything you say, every word you speak. That's how your young child learns to talk...by watching and listening to you! So let's get all wacky with words today. Why? Because talking to children has a calming effect. And your talking helps your child focus...on something you choose over, say, crying or fussing. Just tonight at the pool, the very loud and very annoying fussing of a 4 (or likely she was nearly 4) seemed to be grabbing everyone's negative attention, including that of her mother and three very young siblings. So I got all wacky and began sing-songing, "Someone's crying. Someone's crying. Can it be? Can it be? Why is someone crying?..." And you know what happened? Yep! That someone stopped crying so she could listen...and her overwhelmed mother and three little siblings tuned in to listen. And the noise level in the area dimmed. I kept going with other wacky sing-songing about what I was seeing and hearing and then I began to chant "Look Here!" which is one of my wacky little let's-talk-about-this-and-focus-here-instead-of-fussing-and-crying rhymes. And it worked! Yep! Wacky words work when you deliver them in a sing-song-y voice at wacky times when nothing else is working to divert a child's attention from all that fussing onto something more productive...and certainly less stressful for the mom. Not to mention the others in the area whose ears had been tormented by all that fussing. Fussing that likely had to do with the fact it was food or sleep time and that little gem of a girl was not where she wanted to be nor doing what she wanted to do. So she was really fussy....until wacky words struck her ears and she closed her little mouth and opened those listening ears. And then one of her sibs reached out with a less-than-gentle touch, so I needed to break into sing-songing my "P-E-A-C-E" poem to help her touch more gently. Now all 4 little gems were thinking about ways to use their mouths and their hands to be their most peaceful selves. And Mom was feeling a lot more peaceful! Wacky words on Wacky Wednesday gave Mom some talking points to use all the way home. And I'll bet the TALK in that vehicle included some ideas about peace and some counting of ears and cheeks...'cause that kind of TALK was modeled for all 5 people! WOW! Stay tuned for Thinking Thursday....coming up tomorrow will be some ways to have THINKING fun as you TALK to your child!

Babs Hadjusiewicz

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