Communication: Another thing to add to the Job Description of a Parent…

There are a number of duties or responsibilities that a parent has that if you put them on a resume you would land a job pretty fast 🙂

One of the roles that came to mind as I was reviewing all the information about communication in young children is Interpreter or Translator. 

Let’s just think about this for a moment…

For the first 6 to 9 months of your child’s life you knew what your child needed by the sounds that they made, especially their cries. 

Around the 8 to 9 month mark you started to be able to understand what your child wanted by their actions or gestures. When your child started to wave bye bye you knew they wanted to leave.

A great example of this happened today while I was out shopping. A little guy around 10 to 11 months was shopping with his mom and he was pointing and making noises. At first she said “I don’t know what you want” and he pointed again and she then handed him the grape he was pointing at without even realizing what she was doing.

When your child was between 1 to 2 years of age, you understood what she needed when she stated one word. That one word had a great deal of meaning. When a child this age states one word it can mean many different things so you help your child be understood by others by translating what that one word means. Here is a great example.

Around the age of 3 your child will become a really good communicator; however, they still struggle with actually communicating their feelings. You will be the person that understands what is going on for your child most days (there will be some days that you will feel like you have no idea who your child is) and you will help them inform others as to how they are feeling.

As your child approaches 5 to 6 years of age your role of the translator will reduce. There will still be times when you know what is going on for your child and even they will not have a clue as to why they are behaving the way they are. 

Until the day my Dad passed away he knew what I was feeling just by the tone of my voice. 

Being a parent seems to gives you the superpower of understanding this little human more than even you will know!

Keep on being the Interpreter or Translator!

As Always, Be the Parent You Want to Be!