Pointing

• Hula Hoop Submitted by Padma Lawler
  1. We bought small potato chips called Hula Hoops (Gluten Free) in the shape of rings and every time our son wanted to eat them, he had to use his pointing finger and we put the ring on his finger.
  2. SD or Teaching cue: "Point"

     Task : Extend the pointing finger

     Reinforcer: a hula hoop + lots of verbal praise

  3. Once our son got that (very quickly of course as he loves to eat), we extended the idea to point to a picture by putting the ring on the picture:

     SD: "Point to ..."

     Task : Learner puts his finger into the hula hoop

     Reinforcer: a hula hoop + verbal praise " Good pointing to ...

  Other Tips: Fade the prompt as you go along. We were able to get our son to point to pictures without the hula hoop, and then he pointed to objects, etc. Gradually we faded his reward from the hula hoop to other edibles, physical, and verbal reinforcers which he learned in time.

  We are still using this sometimes to teach him to follow OUR finger with a hula hoop on it - which gets his attention - to point to an object far away to teach joint attention. Hard going but I know he will get it.

  Note from ATT: If your learner doesn't like Hula Hoops, any ring shaped food that he or she enjoys can be substituted, especially if it is the firm consistency of a cereal or cracker. Even a pretzel could work, if it's braided or ring shaped.