Experience Steps

1. Sit with your child in a comfortable position where you are able to be face to face with her. Place her food on the table and allow her to eat/explore her food.
2. Narrate/describe her actions using single words. Comment on what food she is eating, praise and describe and don’t worry about touching materials or teaching, yet. The goal is to slowly increase your involvement without challenging her.
3. Slowly start to involve yourself by offering food to her. The goal is to hand the food over when the child is facing you, although eye contact from the child to receive the food is not yet necessary.
4. Next, offer help. When she’s not looking, put preferred food into containers she need assistance to open. Hold out your hand and say "help?" to offer your assistance. Be sure to give the food right back as soon as you have helped. The goal is for the child to be facing you so she can see your help with the food without an expectation yet that she uses a specific behaviour to request the food from you.
5. Begin to imitate your child, pick up extras of the same food she has and create the same movements, using single words to narrate the actions. You may also use sound effects, gestures, big facial expressions and lots of affect to capture her smile. E.g. crunchy (crunch, crunch, crunch pretending to eat crunchy food), cold (shiver brrrrrr), hot (fan tongue). The goal is to capture her eye contact, both on your handling of the material and to your face, and to find her smile in the game.
6. For every three times you imitate her, give her a choice that relates to the current play activity. E.g. "Apple or orange” Let her choose however she wants, regardless of eye contact but remember to label her decision using single words. The goal is for her to become more active in decision-making and to increase the length of the activity.
7. For every three times you offer her a choice, ask her to do something in the play e.g. Poke an unfamiliar food. Whatever it is, make sure there is a fun reward following her compliance e.g. An exaggerated “Ouch!”. Remember that the consequence has to be worth the effort. The goal is for the child to become more active in play and to take turns following your ideas in play.
8. For every 3 times you provide a fun reward, have the child respond to your teaching opportunity using a non-verbal behaviour. This could be a gesture, body movement, or eye contact. It has to be directed toward you and relate somehow to this activity. Remember to accept attempts and reward. The goal is to have the child use an intentional behaviour in response to your antecedent, followed by the rewarding consequence. E.g. Before you say “Ouch!” wait for your child to cue you to continue with eye contact or some other non-verbal behaviour.