Getting Close to Communicate

Parents often wonder how to get and keep their child’s attention. Building attention span is important for communication development. Babies and toddlers have a much shorter attention span than preschoolers. Realistic expectations and some techniques for engaging your child are helpful.

Tips for keeping a child's attention:

• Make sure your child’s hearing equipment is on and working properly
• Evaluate the level of distraction: if there is too much stimulation, visual, auditory and/or tactile, then your child will be less likely to focus and attend
• Your child’s ability to attend will decrease if he is tired, hungry, or feeling unwell
• Modeling good attention skills by paying attention to your child’s communication attempts and responding positively will show your child what to do
• Engaging your child’s attention by using an interesting voice and appearance, and by pausing to encourage anticipation and participation results in longer attention spans