Yes and No Cycle

A core part of learning about Video Interaction Guidance is understanding the yes cycle and the no cycle.

I use the following videos of my son at 15 mths age and me to demonstrate the cycles.

In the first clip I am demonstrating a Yes cycle. I am tuning into my son and we are receiving each other over multiple turns.

In the second clip I am demonstrating a No cycle. I am not responding to my son’s initiatives. It is interesting to look at his response of not being responded to – he turns away at first, but then tries to reengage me by making a similar sound to what we both used in the Yes cycle.

The third clip is a bit different. I am showing how you can say no by using a Yes cycle. There are two parts to the clip – first I say “no” and he does not like it, but immediately I create a yes cycle by first receiving him (“you want the microphone”) and then saying no. Yes cycles are about efforts to understand each other.