 Family Life
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Audio/Video Script:
In the Park
Dr. Wally: "Hey! It’s the Johnstons!"
Mom: "Hi Dr. Wally!"
Dad: "Hi Dr. Wally!"
Dr. Wally: "It’s Tori with the shades on! How are you?"
Mom: "Who is that?"
Dr. Wally: "Well it looks like a perfect day for Tori!"
Mom: "It’s such a nice day! She’s got all her toys out."
Dr. Wally: "Doesn’t get any better, does it Tori? How do you pick toys
for Tori? How do you decide what to get her?"
Mom: "We really let her decide. We get a variety of different types of
toys and we encourage her to play with whatever she wants to."
Dr. Wally: "So you figure out what it is that she’s interested in and
enjoys. What do you learn about her preferences?"
Mom: "Really, we’ve learned that, even from the very beginning, that she
loves things that have types of textures so a lot of different toys have those
but she loves books and a lot of books have many different textures."
Dr. Wally: "The books with the little textures in them."
Mom: "Yeah. And her preferences have really changed. She’s gotten older.
Just recently we were going through and put away a lot of her old little baby
toys since she really doesn’t play with those anymore. She’s now into toys that
she can push and pull and that are more active. Her preferences have changes
since she’s gotten older."
Dr. Wally: "So you watch to see what she’s interested in and you are
aware of her age and the appropriate toys for her age.
Dad: "Yes."
Mom: "And even though Tori’s are age appropriate, they still depend on
the uniqueness and what the child likes. So you have to watch for what’s
appropriate but also what she enjoys and what she likes to play with."
Dr. Wally: "Well, let me ask Evan. Have you noticed anything that you
were ready to play with but she wasn’t quite ready for?"
Dad: "There’s quite a few things but this trike that I was ready to put
her on right away and get her running around the house a little bit. But until
she’s ready for something like that, I wouldn’t put her on it. But now she’s at
the age where we can put her on it and she can motor around a little bit and her
feet can touch the ground and sometimes she even lives to push it. With
supervision, she can do pretty well."
Dr. Wally: "Well, she’s almost one and almost ready to walk so leaning on
something helps."
Mom: "She uses that to help her walk. If she doesn’t want to use that,
she has several different toys that she can pull and push and we’ve noticed that
she does use that (trike) to give her some balance in order to walk. But
sometimes she’ll just sit on it and play on it. So we let her use it however she
would like to play with it."
Dr. Wally: "Does she have any family or friends who worry about her being
ready to walk before other children her age?"
Mom: "I don’t know if they worry, but people definitely ask, ‘Well is she
walking yet?’ and we tell them no, not yet. They respond with ‘Oh’. But you
know, she’ll walk when she’s ready. It’s something that we don’t want to rush
her and when she’s ready to walk she’ll do it. We have lots of different toys
that will help to encourage her and help to build those muscles and things she
needs but when she’s ready, she’ll walk."
Dr. Wally: "So there’s no sense rushing it, is there?"
Dad: "No. Children develop at different rates so we’re in no hurry to
have her walking or running yet."
Dr. Wally: "So your main job is to enjoy their development."
Dad: "Yes."
Dr. Wally: "Rather than worry about it and rush it at all."
Dad: "I’d prefer that she stay less mobile at the moment."
Dr. Wally: (Laughter)
Mom: "And staying home with her all day makes it much more difficult to
do that once they get mobile and moving around."
Dr. Wally: "Then the whole house has to be prepared for her, doesn’t it?"
Mom: "That’s right."
Dad: "Yes."
Dr. Wally: "Now what about when there’s extra stresses in your life, like
maybe you move or your work schedule or something that’s happening, do you do
anything to try to be sensitive to her needs at times like that?"
Mom: "We did just recently move into our new house and it was probably a
more stressful time for us as her parents than it was on her but we made a real
conscious effort to try to make sure that the things that she needed and liked
were all in her room and that her room was set up the exact same way so that she
felt comfortable and in her surroundings. I think that it helped but as parents,
we had to make a conscious effort not to allow our stress to affect her."
Dr. Wally: "So you tune in to her and you set things up for her to make
the transition."
Dad: "You bet and it went very, very well. She adjusted very well."
Dr. Wally: "That’s great. You know, as we talk about this, about
understanding children I think that the old saying that ‘children don’t come
with instructions’ might be mistaken. Maybe she is the instructions."
Dad: "She’s taught us an awful lot in the past 10 or 11 months and it’s
been a huge learning experience for us and we had been told for years and years
that it would be but it has been a pleasure and something that we have learned a
lot from."
Dr. Wally: "So Evan, you’re saying that she’s a great teacher, huh?"
Dad: "She is a great teacher."
Dr. Wally: "Well it’s sure been neat to talk with you and she’s a lucky
girl to have you as parents-so involved and paying attention to her needs.
Dad: "Thank you, Dr. Wally."
Dr. Wally: "You bet."
Mom: "It was great to see you. Bye, bye!"
Dr. Wally: "Bye Ms. Tori. Good bye!"
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