After posting “The Language Barrier” I have to say I was still unable to draw from my own mind the phrases I felt would be most important, so I threw it to my friends and family on Facebook. I was hoping that more people would have responded but it doesn’t matter. The ones who did have uncemeted my feet and I can now step back and see what I needed.
Help me understand.
Stop. Danger.
Stay close.
Are you sick?
Hold my hand, please.
You are safe now.
What hurts?
Brush your teeth,
Wash your hands and face.
You are important to me.
What do you like? Or Which one do you want?
Let’s do this together.
Good job.
Can I help you...? (blanks to be filled in with words or gestures)
Time for bed.
Story time
Bath time
I am sorry.
It is okay to be sad, or feel upset.
Did you have fun?
I am not perfect but I promise be the best I can be. (I take this one very seriously)
Would you like a hug?
You are going to be okay.
I love you.
“Help me understand,” made the top of my list, (not that the list is in any order) but those three words say so much. Reading between the lines of “Help me understand” also says: I’m trying, what you say matters to me, and therefore you matter to me, and I want to help you.
Obviously there is a lot more that can be added to this list, and if you have some suggestions feel free to throw them in a comment. Seeing we are just starting to learn the language I think this is a pretty good baseline to start from, but I never say no to another person's insight.
There's a "Russian for Adoptive Parents" learning set that covers a bunch of those. Maybe use google to find it?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for letting me know. I've already looked into it.
ReplyDelete:D