We have a 14-month old. Enough said... it's time to childproof our home!

Since we live in a NYC apartment, childproofing feels like a blend of Marie Kondo meets Tetris.

Since we live in a NYC apartment, childproofing feels like a blend of Marie Kondo meets Tetris.

It took a few weeks of gates, sandpaper, and plexiglass. We finally feel like we're getting somewhere.

The baby now has a childproofed room to call her own, and the rest of our apartment is decidedly more minimalist. (Even if a bit louder, for the time being.)

Along the way, we found childproofing to be a great opportunity to build on and introduce language and skills using LSL strategies.

We found childproofing to be a great opportunity to build on and introduce language and skills using LSL strategies.

Here are five of our favorites.

#1: Turn the Screwdriver Around, Around, Around!

Some of our childproofing required a screwdriver. For one, we covered glass windows of our French doors with plexiglass, attaching screws to the corners. We also assembled a child gate on our galley kitchen, screwing the mounting brackets to the door frame.

A screwdriver can be very interesting to a toddler, but of course it's not a toy!

Nevertheless, it was a great opportunity to explain the new tool.

Even a small amount of “buy in” by a toddler can help foster a sense of ownership through participation.

We've been working on rotating objects in speech class for months, using a simple song to highlight the action.

The song helped teach skills for using toys with dials and knobs. So it seemed like just the right thing to explain a screwdriver's turning motion.

We carefully presented an opportunity to turn the screwdriver a few times while we safely held it, which was a hit.

As with brushing teeth or putting in hearing aids in the morning, even a small amount of "buy in" by a toddler can help foster a sense of ownership through participation.

You may just find your toddler enjoys pointing to the screws in the wall and singing about it!

#2: Wireless Microphone x Power Tools

We used a power drill to drill pilot holes in some plexiglass—not a very child-friendly activity! But a 14-month old can be very interested in that!

We explained everything. Interest was building...

Then, Eureeka! We found a solution. We could do the drilling from behind the French doors. We narrated our description of the activity directly into her hearing aids via our wireless Phonak Partner Mic. Awesome!

It also gave us a chance to explain some unfamiliar loud sounds.

#3: Read the Directions

Our child gates came with lengthy instructions. We're talking a colorful road map-sized sheet of paper full of illustrations and technical language.

It's the kind of thing that can catch a baby's attention right away.

So we sat down together and read through the directions. We got to use some words that toddlers don't ordinarily hear during the day.

And as a bonus, explaining something to a 14-month old is not a bad way to understand the directions yourself!

Double win.

Explaining something to a 14-month old is not a bad way to understand the directions yourself!

#4: Host a Home Improvement Show

Our child gates took a while to install. But we needed to watch the baby at the same time.

Cue the high chair!

We wore our Partner Mic and narrated to our eager audience. The kitchen was already a hit from all our cooking together. It wasn't a hard sell.

We gave a few choice opportunities to help out, prefacing them with an explanation.

We got to use some familiar language in different contexts. Our speech therapists tell us that deaf children may struggle with this, and sometimes can attach certain language to specific objects only. So it's good to show how certain words—such as turning, stacking, pulling, etc.—apply across many different objects in the world.

For example, we could ask baby to "push push push the adhesive onto the plastic" just like she "push push pushes her [suction cup] dinner plate onto her high chair tray."

#5: Enjoy the Sound of Sandpaper

Not all of our childproofing projects required loud power tools. Some of the sounds were downright pleasant!

Sanding the pointy edges of some pine toy crates? It's a great family activity.

It was a great opportunity to talk about the "sssssssss" sound of sandpaper. We talked about how the wood could be sharp/pointy or smooth.

Did we mention we had to sand three wood crates of toys? Where did all of these toys come from?!