Creative Child February 2019 | Page 25

Quality Time Children who speak this love language seek undivided attention. For a child whose love language is quality time, you may often hear the request, “Can you put your phone down?” It’s easy to mistaken time spent together as quality time. But there is no fooling a child who gets his love bucket filled with quality time. Quality time is about focus. It can be had through conversations, sharing a meal together, or engaging in the same activity side by side, even when words are scarce. Quality time requires that you are either focused on the child, or on the same thing the child is focused on. For a child with siblings, some shuffling may be required to find one-on-one time with either mom or dad. Physical Touch A child whose love language is physical touch will continue to cherish hugs, kisses, a touch on the arm, a pat on the back, wants to literally feel their love. There are many ways to speak this language. You can read them a story while the child sits on your lap, hold his hand while walking, or even by spinning him around in the air. Though children receive love best from one dominant love language, that’s not to say they won’t need the other expressions of love. A child who feels love most deeply through a gift, can and most probably will appreciate encouraging words or a hug. But your efforts to communicate love will be more effective by focusing on his main love language. 24