Heads up: This post is 14 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
Sept. 7th
Just now, I was playing with my son Luc and my daughter Sel on the bed. Luc was doing his usual jumping around, I have to keep reminding him that I don’t want him to jump on the bed when his sister is lying here.
Sel actually really enjoys watching her brother jumps! Recently she had started turning onto her tummy, at first she would cry as the new position was unfamiliar to her. Later on, she could stay on her tummy with her head up for a while, until she got tired and couldn’t hold her head up any longer, that’s when her face will plant straight onto the bed / carpet and she would cry for help! I would gentle touch her and tell her that I’m by her side ready to give her a hand, it doesn’t seem like I’m getting through to her as she just continue to cry hysterically, but I believe she’ll understand me eventually.
The 2nd time she cried in this position today, our helper came over and said 1 of the 2 things she always say: “Your diaper wet mui?” (“Mui” means little sister in Cantonese.) She stuck her hand inside Sel’s diaper and then picked her up from the back. Sitting in front of Sel, I could see her facial expressions as she was being lifted up. Even though she was in the middle of crying for help due to her facing down, she still had a look of confusion rather than relieve from being “saved” from the face down position.
In RIE, it’s suggested that you talk to your babies and do things with them rather than to them. Personally, I haven’t seen concrete evidence of 6 months old Sel understanding what I am saying to her, but I have no doubt that this kind of in context communications is not only one of the best ways of training your baby’s ear for verbal communications, but also great for teaching them from day one that their body belongs to them and others need to have their permission to do anything to it!