Clapping is a great gesture to begin using with your child. It helps you be enthusiastic, and it becomes a way to reinforce whatever your child is doing.

At first you will do the action while your child watches. Use an action then wait; give your child a chance to imitate before you give any assistance. Accept any response to encourage your child to be engaged with you.

Patting is a basic movement that you can use in a back-and-forth game. Pat the back of your child’s hand and then wait for your child to pat yours.

Today’s activity: Add more social games with gestures like tapping, patting and clapping. Examples: clapping, pat-a-cake, pat-pat-pat.

Download the Level Three list of skills and activities to use as a checklist and reminder.

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you!