Understanding Engagement and Disengagement Cues To Improve Communication With Your Newborn

Babies use cues and signals to communicate with us.  By recognizing our baby's cues you can begin to communicate with him at a very young age. Your baby may provide engagement or disengagement cues.  This means that your baby will let you know when he’s able to engage or interact with you and when he can’t. If your baby demonstrates wide eyes, eye contact, smiling, cooing, sucking, smooth hand and arm movements or reaching toward you, he’s ready to play and interact with you. Your baby is likely to demonstrate engagement cues when he’s in a quiet alert state.  If your baby is closing his eyes, looking away from you, hiccuping, fussy, arching or stiffening his back, or demonstrates jerky and uncontrolled movements, you can bet that he’s not in the mood to play and interact with you just yet. When this happens your baby is probably in the active alert or drowsy state. It is important for you to be able to read your babies engagement cues because your baby may not be ready to interact with you when you have planned to interact with him.  Therefore it is so important to let your baby take the lead and follow his cues to catch him at just the right time for optimum interaction and learning.

When you follow your baby's cues and catch him at just the right time, the communication interaction with your baby will bring you wonder and joy.