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Teaching Infants about “Hot” & “Cold” |
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by Izzy  (October 2006) (rank 5th) |
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One of the dangers for infants and youngchildren at home is the possibility of getting burned from touching hot things. How do we teach the word “hot” and “cold” so as to avoid potentially serious accidents in the future?
When my son was about 6-7 months old,
even before he could crawl, I introduced the word “hot” by letting him touch something warm. When I warmed up his food, I let him touch the bottom of the bowl (while it’s still warm but not quite hot enough to burn) and said, “it’s hot”. I did the same thing with cold drinks and let him touch it while saying "cold". Sometimes I touched the cold food or drink to his face, which always got either a laugh or a giggle. Through this process, my son also learned the word “touch”, which is also important during times when I need to say “Don’t touch!”
One sunny day during an outdoor play session when my son was 12 months old, he took interest on the cover of our septic pump and wanted to climb on it. It’s a big round thing that looks like a manhole cover. I already knew that this cover gets warm when the sun beats down on it, so when I was too far to run to him in time to grab him from touching that cover, I yelled out, “Matthew, don’t touch! It’s hot!” He immediately stopped and reached out his hand to touch it cautiously. He found that it was warm to the touch and retracted his hand. Success!
So next time, let the wee little ones touch things that are hot (actually, warm, not hot) or cold while telling them the word. It may just be the difference between getting burned or burned too many times!
Copyright © 2006, username: Izzy @ www.minti.com. All rights in all media reserved. The content of this article may be forwarded in full without special permission provided it is used for nonprofit purposes and full attribution and copyright notice are given.
