• Any opportunity for your child to take turns with you (and others) is a wonderful thing!
  • Turn-taking can be as simple as taking turns in a signed or spoken conversation.
  • It’s important for your child to realize that she needs to listen (or watch) until the other person is finished with their turn at speaking (signing), so that she can understand everything that person had to say. This really does take specific practice. You can even make it very explicit for your child by saying, “My turn to talk now, please listen”. Then, say what you’d like to say. Finally, you can say, “Okay, thank you for listening to my turn. It’s your turn to talk now.”
  • It can also be as easy as passing an interesting object back and forth to look at and discuss.
  • Turn-taking prepares your child to be skilled at the reciprocity (a fancy word for taking turns!) needed for successful communication and of social interactions.
  • Board games and physical games (hopscotch, relay races) are other good ways to practice taking turns.

Tip #6: The Bottom Line:
Make sure to practice taking turns when talking or playing with your child. Use the words: “my turn”, “your turn”, “his turn”, & “her turn” to emphasis this skill.