What is DBL?
All newborn babies produce 5 different sounds in their cries. These sounds are all reflex based ie when the baby is hungry, it starts the sucking reflex. When you add sound to that, the result is “neh”. When the baby is tired, it starts the yawning reflex, and the sound which is produced with that is “owh”.
There are different sounds for:
- I’m hungry
- I’m tired
- I have need to burp
- I have lower wind pain
- I’m uncomfortable.
DBL is a way of interpreting a babies cries.
How do you learn?
DBL can be taught individually in your home, or in small groups in communities. It consists of 2 sessions held a week apart, of 1 – 1.5 hrs.
In session 1, there is an overview of the development, and 3 of the sounds are introduced. You practise producing the sounds yourself – so you understand what your baby is doing. We then watch a dvd showing variousbabies making these sounds. Next we talk about ‘solving’ the baby’s need which we are now able to identify.
In session 2 we do a re-cap, and introduce the last two sounds, practising as above. You receive a copy of the DBL dvd to keep, and view in your own home, enabling you to develop your ear for this new language, thereby becoming proficient at it.
The ideal is a content baby and a calm parent.
How does it benefit me / my baby?
If you didn’t know DBL, then each time you have to ‘guess’ what the baby wants. Once you’ve learnt DBL, you will be able to identify the baby’s sounds, and then respond appropriately.
Imagine how frustrating it must be for a baby to be ‘saying’: Im tired, and you misinterpret it as they are hungry, and so feed them. Then, the baby keeps crying and you now think they need their nappy changed – you how challenging it is for you to still have a crying baby!
Now, imagine another better picture – one where your baby cries, and you say to yourself: I know that cry – that’s the tired cry! You wrap him, settle him, and he goes to sleep – that’s a much better picture, isn’t it?
