Child Sense

Grammie Judy brought over a new book for me to read that was very interesting called Child Sense by Priscilla Dunstan. The book describes a way to better understand, soothe and parent your child by determining which of their 4 senses is more dominant. After quickly perusing the 4 options, I discovered the Monkey was undeniably an "Auditory Child" (as opposed to "Tactile", "Visual" or "Taste/Smell").

An auditory baby is described as living their lives to a rhythm and sound track all of their own. "Tuned in at every moment to the invisible world of sound, which encompasses rhythm, volume, pitch and tone, these kids take in an enormous amount of sensory information..." Thankfully I discovered I'm an "auditory adult" (yes, they evaluate you the parent as well) so the Monkey and I are considered a "match" vs. a "mismatch" - but either way, it's not an issue as the book describes how to parent a match or mismatch.

Now on to the laundry list of reasons why it was so easy to see the Monkey is an auditory baby...

1) Music, rhythm and repitition is a huge part of an auditory baby's life. It helps soothe them, helps them find their "voice" to their emotions, and is often a way to help them find "familar ground" and feel comfortable. (um, Dance Party USA, Old McDonald filled car rides, humming and shooshing in her ear to calm her, etc.)

2) These babies don't just take in sound, they also produce quite a bit of sound themselves. You'll know an auditory child when you hear one. (Definitely Eloise - squealing when she's excited, whaling when she's sad, "chatting", cooing, hums to herself to self-soothe - didn't realize what this was until reading this book. She's a baby who can literally go from 0-10 in 3 seconds or less.)

3) One way to identify an auditory baby is by observing their behavior when their moms are on the phone. Auditory babies are so connected to their mother's voice that they will often get very clingy and fussy if their moms are talking on the phone within earshot. (Many of you have received a "screaming Eloise" filled voicemail or have had a convo cut short due to my squealing baby - actually left a voice mail today with Eloise squealing in the background.)

4) Auditory babies love to be read too. (Eloise loves story time. She giggles and smiles when looking at me as I use different inflections throughout her stories. She'll look at the page of the book, then me, smile or giggle, then look back at the page. It's too cute.)

5) Auditory babies conk out at the end of the day. After hours and hours of absorbing auditory stimulation from whatever is within earshot, in addition to generating a fair amount of noise themselves, these kids need a solid night's sleep in order to recharge for the next day and also to get a break from the sensory overload. (Eloise, since day 1, literally conks out at bedtime. I've always felt so lucky at how easily she goes down at night and how long she's able to sleep. Now I know why. She's completely exhausted from her day and ready for it to come to an end.) (Also a sign of an auditory baby - they chat themselves to sleep. Eloise does this a lot now at nap time. It's very cute.)

The list continued on and on. Definitely an auditory baby. And I'm not surprised that Eloise is an auditory baby. Using her voice and noise to express herself is payback for my own "paid by the word" ways. Lol. Either way, I thought this book was really cool in that it offered up suggestions that will be helpful when we see Eloise approaching a meltdown or ways to keep her happy and giggling now as a baby and up into toddlerhood and preschool.  Definitely a good read. I recommend it to parents.