Eye contact in infants

Recently we blogged about this "serve and return" feature of responsive adult-child interactions. Now here's some interesting research about eye contact in infants:

"Dr Victoria Leong, lead author on the study said: “When the adult and infant are looking at each other, they are signalling their availability and intention to communicate with each other. We found that both adult and infant brains respond to a gaze signal by becoming more in sync with their partner. This mechanism could prepare parents and babies to communicate, by synchronising when to speak and when to listen, which would also make learning more effective.”

What do you think?

TED Talk: "Good" and "Bad" Are Incomplete Stories We Tell Ourselves

Here's a TED Talk worth watching. We'd love to hear your thoughts...

"Good" and "Bad" are Incomplete Stories We Tell Ourselves

"Heather Lanier's daughter Fiona has Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a genetic condition that results in developmental delays -- but that doesn't make her tragic, angelic or any of the other stereotypes about kids like her. In this talk about the beautiful, complicated, joyful and hard journey of raising a rare girl, Lanier questions our assumptions about what makes a life "good" or "bad," challenging us to stop fixating on solutions for whatever we deem not normal, and instead to take life as it comes."

Thank you to EI SIG member Dana Childress for sharing this!

What is your main "take-away" from this talk?

What do the speaker's insights mean to you and your work in Early Intervention?

Resource: How Caregivers Can Boost Young Brains

From Harvard Graduate School of Education: This resource can be a great supplement/visual support to coaching conversations with families!

How Caregivers Can Boost Young Brains: Five simple steps for stimulating interactions with young children — at home, in daycare, or in preschool

The resource mentions this idea of "serve and return".

How does this "serve and return" play out in  your interactions with young children? 

How can we support caregivers in engaging in this kind of interaction with their child?

Growing Strong: Social-Emotional Development Calendar from Brookes Publishing

Hello, EI SIG! Hope you all had a good start to 2018.

Here's a link to download your free "Growing Strong" social-emotional development calendar from Brookes Publishing.