The Ask Grandma app brings important teachings to life in short modules designed to support early communication and cultural connectedness in infants and toddlers. Each module in the app features real examples and video demonstrations of developmental strategies completed with Native children which make them useful for both caregivers, home visitors, and early interventionists who want to nurture language, learning, and identity in culturally meaningful ways.
The +LiM pilot study was designed for parents and caregivers of toddlers in the Shiprock area and delivered in five lessons by a community-based Diné Family Health Coach. Lessons emphasize responsive communication in daily routines, following the child’s lead, book reading, pretend play, and incorporating Diné language into everyday life.
“Families that have experienced significant trauma – especially when household members attended boarding school – often fall back on authoritarian language with young children,” Joshuaa explained. “We help caregivers shift from behavior management to language rich communication.”
Through the program, caregivers learn to label emotions, wait for a child’s response and model language. “It’s like we turn on these warm heart feelings that build pride in parenting. Often we’re touching on a soul wound that a caregiver has from childhood, and filling it with love and warmth. Researchers might call it building ‘parental self-efficacy’, I think of it as a lightening up of the soul – we see it with almost every family.”