Oral language skills are developed when you talk to your baby in context on a daily basis. For this activity, the positional words “up” and “down” are used repeatedly to help your baby begin to understand direction and orientation.
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Step 1: If the weather permits, take your baby outside and hold him in your arms. Point to objects at eye level first to see if he follows your finger.
Step 2: Point up to an object (a bird, airplane, tree, etc) and have your baby look at it. Be sure to use the word up when you want your baby to notice something up above. You might say:
Look up, Dylan! I see a bird flying high up in the sky! Do you see the bird? He’s a very big black bird that has lots of feathers. He is way up above us.
After noticing the bird, your baby may note other objects (clouds, airplanes, etc). Be sure to identify what he is looking at and using the word up as often as you can.
Step 3: Bring your child’s attention back to eye level and point to the house across the street, for example. After a few seconds, point down and show him something he may find interesting (an ant, your shoes, etc). You can say something like:
Look down, Dylan. Do you see that small, red dot moving way down on the ground? That’s an ant! He’s hungry and looking for something to eat. He is so small. We are very big!
Step 4: You can bring this activity inside the house. Continue to show him items that are up and down until he is ready for something new.
