Do you ever feel like it is too hot to go outside during the afternoon of a summer day? Well, there are lots of activities you could do with your child inside. One of our favorite activities is baking together. The two most important things to remember as you bake with your child are:
Making cookies together as a parent and child (guide and apprentice) is a great opportunity to learn a simple co-regulatory pattern, working together, problem solving, or social referencing, depending on how you set up the activity. Today we are focusing on social referencing, and how to help your child learn and feel the importance of eye contact instead of just telling them to use it. Instead of teaching eye contact directly, we are going to help you teach your child to know when to reference you. Here is a sample activity of how you could do this during baking cookies together:
1. It is okay if your cookies don't work - baking is about the experience NOT the end result
2. Make sure you set aside plenty of time to make this a learning opportunity - remember that it is going to take 2 or 3 times longer than if you were to bake alone
Making cookies together as a parent and child (guide and apprentice) is a great opportunity to learn a simple co-regulatory pattern, working together, problem solving, or social referencing, depending on how you set up the activity. Today we are focusing on social referencing, and how to help your child learn and feel the importance of eye contact instead of just telling them to use it. Instead of teaching eye contact directly, we are going to help you teach your child to know when to reference you. Here is a sample activity of how you could do this during baking cookies together:
During this activity, we are going to use a parent’s
emotional reactions to give the necessary information for the child to figure
out what to do next. Prior to starting the activity, you should get out all of the ingredients needed for
the recipe, and prepare them to fit your child's ability. As you are setting up, make sure that you have the goal in mind of guiding he/she through the process of dumping
all of the needed ingredients in the bowl and mixing it all together. Let me reemphasize, your goal is to guide your child through the process of baking cookies, instead of the end result of the cookies themselves.
You could start the interaction by breaking the eggs into the bowl and then looking at the sugar in a very direct way so the child knows it’s the next thing to add. If the child goes to add the melted butter you could shake your head, “No…”, and then continue looking at the sugar, waiting to see what he/she does. When he grabs the sugar to put in, you could nod “Yes!”, and smile as he/she pours it in. Then you could add the vanilla, he could add the butter, and so on, until all of the ingredients are in the bowl.
You could start the interaction by breaking the eggs into the bowl and then looking at the sugar in a very direct way so the child knows it’s the next thing to add. If the child goes to add the melted butter you could shake your head, “No…”, and then continue looking at the sugar, waiting to see what he/she does. When he grabs the sugar to put in, you could nod “Yes!”, and smile as he/she pours it in. Then you could add the vanilla, he could add the butter, and so on, until all of the ingredients are in the bowl.
In doing this activity, the most important thing to remember
is that the exercise is NOT to teach the child how to make cookies. Instead,
the main purpose is to teach him to look at you to determine what to do next,
and most importantly that it is fun to do things together.
The amount of structure and scaffolding the
activity has would need be individually customized to each child.
No comments:
Post a Comment