If your favourite song comes on and you know the words - you sing along, right? You love it, so you're tempted to join in. The same applies to babies!! 'Joining in' looks different at different stages. When I first started singing this to August, his 'joining in' was just looking at me and smiling. As he's grown, joining in now looks like him patting my hand because that's what we always do in the song. See how he looks at me expectantly after 'mark it with B'? I'm PAUSING (another communication temptation) for him to look at me to keep the interaction going.

The complete opposite of this would be me just singing to him with no pauses, eye contact or actions, which would result in way less interaction. 

HOW TO:
🍰 find some songs/nursery rhymes with actions. Think 'head shoulders knees and toes'. A google search will help!
🍰 sneak the songs into your routine! REPETITION IS KEY! If your baby enjoys it, do it lots!
🍰 Set up next steps for your baby. Can you teach them an easy way to join in? E.g. Pointing to their nose at the end of 'heads shoulders knees and toes'.
🍰 pause to create opportunity for your baby to make eye contact and do their action.
🍰ENJOY these beautiful interactions together!