How to speak in the language of "play"
Why your child's language is "play". And how you can learn to speak this "language of play" to help get them to listen to you.
I was reading the news today and the following headline caught my attention: "A 29-year-old woman has been arrested after she spent four days fraudulently enrolled as a high school student in New Jersey."
This 29-year-old lady apparently created a fake birth certificate, and then used it to enroll herself for a couple of days in the high school.
I don't know her reasons for doing this, but I couldn't help but shudder when I imagined what it would be like to go back to high school now. I would probably not even feel like I am speaking the same language as the high school kids, with their slang and abbreviations and Internet speak.
It reminded me about something that Karen Safran spoke about when I interviewed her for my ebook "How To Get Your Kids To Listen".
Karen is the author of "Parenting - Let’s Make a Game of It," and in our interview she shared how you can connect with your child through play.
According to Karen, children's language is play, so the more playful you can be when interacting with them, the more likely they are to listen to you.
The better you get at understanding and talking this "language", the easier it becomes to get your child to cooperate and listen to you.
I'm talking about little kids at first, but this works for older kids also. If you're like Mary Poppins, and you make a game of it, then all of a sudden, you're speaking their language. It's kind of like going to Italy and trying to talk to someone when you don't know Italian. If you learn the language, then you can communicate. It's the same with kids: you want to speak their language, and their language is play.
Karen Safran
In our interview, Karen shared how being playful not only makes it more likely that your children will cooperate, but also how teaching children to be playful and "find the fun" empowers them when they grow up to find the fun in boring adult activities.
But most importantly for me, Karen shared how starting to "speak my child's language", by focusing on being more playful, helps you connect with your child and build a better relationship with them.