Ming breaks down how to teach non-verbal children to gesture independently by gradually removing physical help. Start by doing the action yourself, then guide their hands, tap to prompt them, give a gentle reminder, and step back until they do it alone.
Once you find the cues and prompts that are working already, you try to get rid of it. And how you get rid of it is systematic. So the easiest way is, for instance, if we're teaching a non verbal child to use gestures, we get rid of physical prompts all the time. Let's say you're tapping your shoulder. So the first step is to totally do it for them. The second step is to push them here and let them finish. The third step is just to initiate for them. Just slowly tap, tap their hands so that you do that. The last step is just a gentle reminder that they have to do this. So you see very quickly that it's been reduced. And the last reduction, it becomes a gesture to tell them to initiate the action. And the action becomes so small that it's gone and then the skill has been acquired. I want you to think about teaching a child this way.
