Communicating With Toddlers

#ToddlerStruggles

I recently had a consult with a lovely couple who have a toddler. I was coaching the father through what he might say to their not yet 2yo toddler when he’s upset, and the father said, “Of course it’s not just my words.. he will understand my tone and body language too.”

And I thought, BINGO! Here’s a man who gets it!

I share this because as we go ahead in this group and talk about toddlers, some of you are inevitably going to say that you’re worried your toddler doesn’t understand the words. That what I’m asking you to say is too complicated for a toddlers.

And I’m here to tell you, that’s literally the biggest mistake we can make as parents- to think that we can’t talk to our kids (no matter what the age) like we would talk to anyone.

Here’s why: Our words are only ONE part of a 7-part process called communication. Here are the other seven parts:

1- Our facial expressions

2- The tone of our voice

3- The volume of our voice

4- Our eye contact

5- Our hand gestures

6- The position of our body

All these things together communicate something to our child.

In fact, has there been a time when someone didn’t even USE words and communicated something to you that you understood very well?! I bet yes.

We sometimes get so frustrated and aren’t in the habit of using our words that we transfer all our anxiety to our kids. When we have the right words available to us (which is what I’m here to do), we can mindfully be positively RESPONSIVE to our kids instead of being REACTIVE.

Either way, with our without words, we communicate a lot to our kids. When we choose our words, we can control what we communicate. That’s our goal 💗