Responding to your child when they make a sound or gesture, and then them doing it back to you, is early turn taking. This is a building block for developing turn taking in conversation later in their development.
Turn taking in play and every day situations also helps develop your child’s ability to wait and allow others to take part in an interaction. Play time is a great way to support and develop your child’s turn taking skills.
Turn Taking Tips
Tap yourself or point to your child to help them understand whose turn it is. Label the turns saying “My turn” or “Your turn”. Talk about taking turns e.g “Who’s next?”, “My turn, your turn”, “Now Daddy”.
If your child is reluctant at first let them have two turns to every one that you have. Gradually increase the length of the turns once your child understands that they will get their turn after you.
You can include turn taking into everyday activities for example; brushing hair, getting dressed, cooking and tidying up.
You can contact the Norfolk & Waveney Speech & Language Therapy Service by calling Just One Number on 0300 300 0123. Our opening hours are 8am-6pm Monday-Friday (excluding bank holidays) and 9am-1pm on Saturdays.
You can speak to other Norfolk parents and carers by clicking our online community forum below.
