Skype Dates

When do you think a child is old enough to understand skype or facetime? I live a few hours away from my birth daughter, so visiting is hard because of scheduling. I want to see her more, and skyping would help me out a lot when I miss her, and I want her to know how much I love her and am thinking about her. I'm sure her adoptive parents would be fine with that. But she's probably too young to understand skype, and her attention span is toddler size. When was your child able to understand and enjoy video chat?

Children recognize family members and friends in videos and photos, and by voice. They also are able to identify themselves. Skype is good if just want basic talk and text and a video. I much prefer Zoom for everything from family communications to communicating with friends To handling business conferencing. Zoome enables the sharing of prerecorded videos like say a visit to the park, which as child recognizes themself, they tend to begin talking about what all happened/ what they did. Chatting regularly with the adoptive parents in one of these formats will help you feel more connected and a part of the milestones, and it gives opportunities for your daughter to do as many toddlers do, say, “Hi!” Then tell you all about whatever they did or thought or the doggie or kitty, then run off and play while the big people talk. This is healthy and happens when grandparents live a distance quite frequently, so if you and her adoptive are both comfortable, with it, it can be done and perhaps a little time is given specifically for time with the little one without it being overwhelming.

I think my first child was communicating and understanding well enough for that at around age four.

That 's normal for a child to understand online chats and Skype these days. This is common when parents are using the internet more often when working.