How to talk to a toddler

Talking to a toddler can be quite confusing and intimidating if you yourself are not the parent of the child in question, and especially if you yourself do not have any children of your own. Kids often seem to have a sense of this, and will run right up to the one person in the room least equipped to interpret what they are saying and immediately latch on to that person and launch into a lengthy narrative. What should you do? Are you expected to respond? Participate? Direct the conversation yourself? Relax, it isn't that complicated. Most toddlers just want someone to pay attention, and they aren't too concerned with how you respond as long as you do respond.

Things You'll Need

• Enthusiasm
• Patience
• Willingness to look and feel a bit silly (come on, it's fun!)

Instructions

1. Show a little enthusiasm. If a child approaches you and excitedly starts sharing with you about...whatever (oftentimes you won't quite be able to tell), all you need to do is match the emotion. As long as you, too, seem excited about...whatever, it will be fairly easy to finesse the fact that you have no idea what the actual subject of the conversation may be.

2. Prepare for rapid mood shifts. Toddlers are toddlers, and as such are prone to very sudden changes. That bubbling enthusiasm may abruptly turn into giggles, tears, or even rage. Again, don't panic, just respond (although do not necessarily match) this new emotion. Try your best to comfort the crying, placate (or distract) the angry, and laugh along with the giggler.

3. Listen carefully for any words you may recognize that might give you a clue as to what the conversation is about - although knowledge of the subject isn't required in order to keep up this dialog, if you are by some chance able to hit upon the correct topic this will be sure to thrill the toddler in question. Again, you do not need to make this any more complicated than it has to be - if all you can hear is, say, the word "blue" (or a word that could probably be "blue"), then you can just point to someone's blue shirt or a blue toy or something and say "look! that's blue, too!" Chances are, even if the color blue had nothing to do with the original topic, it will make a perfectly satisfactory new subject for the two of you to discuss.

4. Feel free to ask questions, but make sure they are very simple ones, i.e. "do you like blue?" as opposed to more complicated concepts like "what did you do yesterday?". Remember, toddlers have very little sense of sequential time, so any type of questions about past or future events may be confusing.

5. Limit the number of ideas you throw out there when you talk. Let the toddler throw out as many random topics as he likes (assuming you are able to figure out what he is talking about in each case), but when the conversational ball is in your court make sure to keep things as simple as possible.

6. Do not worry about whether you've been entertaining or informative enough in your conversation. You're not "PBS Kids", your role isn't to hammer home learning lessons with each word you utter. All that is expected of you in a conversation with a toddler is that you be engaged and sympathetic - whether you understood one word or whether you yourself made any sense in your responses is besides the point. In years to come, this child will not remember what you talked about, but will certainly remember that you were a nice person to talk to.

Tips & Warnings

• With a shy child you may need to do a little conversation starting - any clothing she may be wearing or toys she may have with her are usually good places to start (i.e. "I love your pink shirt! Do you like pink?")

• Be careful with certain topics like kids' TV shows if you do not know the parents well - a seemingly innocuous question like "Do you like Dora the Explorer?" may earn you a glare and a lecture along the lines of "we don't permit TV in our house!"