“I wish I had read this book earlier...” _Author of ‘Bessa Parenting’

If your child is looking for an attachment doll, what type of parent are you?
A.
Find the doll and give it to the child.

B.
“Where did the doll go?” he asks, finds the doll, and hands it to her, saying “I found it!”

C.
“Where did the doll go?” she asks, walking around with the child, “Is it in the bed? It’s not in the bed.”


Parents B is better at stimulating language than A, and C is better at stimulating language than B.
How you react to your child in similar situations can make a difference in their ability to think and express themselves.
There are also research results showing that language stimulation before the age of 5 affects learning ability.
Teacher Jin-i Hwang, a certified language development specialist in the United States, said, “It is an old saying that all a baby needs to do is eat well.
“You need to fill your child with ‘language nutrition’ to grow well.”


"The Miracle of One Minute of Language Stimulation a Day" contains the secrets of the author, who sent her siblings to an American daycare, accelerating the development of her children's native language by using words she used while feeding them, folding their laundry, and walking them.
If you practice one thing a day, your child will start saying hello, playing alone, and expressing his or her opinions instead of throwing tantrums.
This book is a must-read for parents who have been staying home with their children during COVID-19 and for parents who want to support their children's brain development.

There was a child who came to me at 18 months because he had not yet begun to speak.
He liked to play alone and didn't show much interest even when I sat next to him and talked to him.
Then one day, the child was playing with a toy that had buttons, and when the child accidentally pressed the button on the toy, it made a funny sound, “Pow!”
At that moment, the child looked at my face and started laughing as if he found the sound funny.
As I repeated the same action to continue the interaction, the child responded with a smile again.
He kept adding, “Again…” to raise the child’s anticipation, and as the child looked at his face with an expectant expression, waiting for him to make a funny sound, he made another “Pow!” sound.
Then, this became a game, and before I knew it, the child was actively participating in the game, saying “Pow!”

---From "Stop at the most exciting part of the game"

When a child shares an interest, it is often expressed repeatedly and multiple times.
There are no children who express themselves once, even if there are children who do not express themselves.
In such cases, it is best to respond consistently as much as the child repeats.
Children build their understanding of new concepts through repetition.
(…) The words that children express through gestures are the words that they will acquire.
A child who shares interest with his parents by pointing at a 'bird' as he passes by finds birds fascinating and fun, but because he doesn't yet know the word 'bird', he expresses it through gestures.
I am interested and ready to learn.
If you translate what the child wants to say, such as “Bird! Bird!”, the child will be able to absorb it right away.
Because it is the expression that motivates the child the most, it has a greater ability to be learned than any other expression.
― , from ‘Please interpret the child’s gestures and tell me’

When a firstborn child says, “I’m hungry,” they often aren’t really hungry.
It means that there is a specific food that you want to eat.
For example, if you know there are cookies at home and you want to eat cookies, you say, “I’m hungry.”
If this happens repeatedly, it's not that difficult to recognize your child's signals.
What gets a little more difficult here is seeing and 'interpreting' the child's signals.
There are so many situations where it's difficult to figure out why a child is crying or what they're trying to express.
(…) When the first one said, “I’m hungry,” my first thought was, “Oh? I just ate.”
Current state (C) is that since we know we are not hungry, we think of other clues.
‘Is there anything your child likes that he or she would like to eat?’ (I).
And if you think back to the child's experience (E), 'Oh, he saw that there was a cookie yesterday.' The child's real intention is interpreted as 'I want to eat a cookie.'
Then, if you ask the child as intended, “Is it because you want to eat cookies?” the child’s eyes will widen and he will answer, “Yes!”

---From "What is our baby thinking now?"

Tactile play has a positive effect on a child's brain.
However, at this time, what is just as important as brain development is the language stimulation that connects touch and experience.
Many parents worry that they are interrupting their child's time focusing on tactile sensations.
However, telling your child about his or her current experiences actually maximizes concentration.
You don't have to prepare in earnest for tactile play.
You can gently hold a cold drink bottle against your child's leg and say, "Oh, it's cold," or hold a soft doll and say, "Oh, it's soft."
During the early stages of language development, it is better to teach your child a few easy, meaningful expressions from everyday life rather than complex, elaborate expressions.

---From "Talk about what you see, hear, and touch"

“Let’s eat some fruit!” Children who love fruit will be excited to hear this and respond with a “Yes!”
"What kind of fruit would you like? I have grapes and strawberries." It's a common phrase you'd hear in any household, but for the speech therapist mom, it was actually a very deliberate strategy.
What linguistic elements can we glean from this simple question? (…) One way to help a child who has difficulty understanding category words is to list two or more words.
For example, after saying, “What do you want to eat for breakfast?”, you can give examples of vocabulary that fall into the category, such as, “We have oatmeal and seaweed soup.”
In addition to asking, “What color should I paint it?”, it also gives examples such as, “Red? Or blue?”
Then the child says, 'Oh, red, blue, yellow…
You may realize, 'These words are classified as colors.'

---From "Children organize their vocabulary by using categories"

Parents usually don't tell their children in advance about things they know they will hate.
And I just hope that time passes by as quickly as a storm.
But all the child is left with is a feeling of betrayal (unless the child is not that afraid of needles).
Even after the storm has passed, giving a child a shot remains a painful and unpleasant thing, a scary thing that you don't know when you'll get it.
However, if a child talks to his or her parents before experiencing the situation, even if it is difficult, the child's expression may change.


“No! I don’t want to get a shot.
“I think it’ll hurt!”, “Yeah, I’m worried that getting the shot might hurt.
“But if ○○(Lee) gets the shot with courage and bravely gets it, he’ll probably feel really proud.” After having this kind of preliminary conversation, the child who gets the shot will be able to say subtle things like, “I was worried it would hurt, but I got the shot with courage and bravely got it!”

---From "Let's talk about what will happen in the future"

On the way home with my child, I saw construction work on the roof.
The child who first saw a person climbing up on the roof asked.
“Mom, why is that man up there?”, “Yeah.
“I think they’re doing roof work,” he said, but paused and asked the child again.
"I know.
“Why are you up on the roof?” I asked and waited for a moment.
The child thought for a few seconds and then answered.
“I think there’s something to fix on the roof.”

Children often already know the answers to the questions they ask.
Without even realizing that he knew the answer.
Only after asking the child a question like this can the child find the answer to the question on his own, saying, "Ah! It could be because of this and that!"
When someone asks a question, it is natural and familiar for everyone to answer right away.
Especially, as parents, I feel like I have to provide good answers to the questions children ask.
However, if you ask your child a question and give him or her a chance to think, saying, “Why is that so?”, he or she can develop his or her thinking skills.

---From "Asking questions back allows for logical thinking"