Tip 54: Communicate early with head nodding

I have been writing many tips about communicating early and I am more and more convinced each day that parents need to start communicating at a level that the baby understands. And when that happens, the baby responds. Its probably same to toddlers, kindy going kids, teenagers and even young adults. Children (and even adults) mature at different ages and we can not be impatient to want them understand all our wisdom at one go. We can not talk our lingo but need to speak at a level understood by them. Its probably different at office where your managers expect you to understand their point of view - yet I am beginning to be more convinced that the art of communication requires us to understand that some people need time to understand certain wisdom and we need to prepare them for it. Hence, for a baby - lots of body language - including shaking your head to symbolise No, and nodding your head - to signify yes. And be patient ... the baby will respond in due time as they remember.

I blogged about using toys to teach communication, mimicking an animal's sound that the baby will remember, using play actions and sounds during bath time and lips smacking when feeding. Its all simple communication initiatives and later the baby will emulate the same communication gestures. Whenever Haruka is stretching out her hand towards an object that I do not want her to take, I would say Iya-iya (which means no in Japanese kids talk) and shake my head. And if I want her to eat something, I would smack my lips and say its Oishi (delicious) and nod my head and say Yes. Haruka understands me. We need to continue to strive to communicate to others at the level they can understand. The world's wisdom is beyond many of us and some who understands things better than others, need to not overwhelm the rest, but to steadily impress others of such truth. Pushing others to grasp what we are so enthusiastic about can sometimes lead to negative results. A better way is to smile and assess what the other person understands. Then, nod our heads or shake it. Most would understand this gesture even as a baby.