Now it’s time to teach your child that the tag = great things happen!

Some people will simply tag (click) and give the child a candy or other food reinforcer several times to teach the child that the tag sound predicts good things to come. This can work, but it could have the drawback of reinforcing something the child is doing, like sitting still doing nothing for example, and then you have taught a behavior you didn’t mean to teach.

A better approach is to choose a very simple behavior and start with that. Any one of the behaviors in the sample videos shown above are great choices.

The very simplest is to give the tag point to say please (or sign please), tag and give the reinforcer. This makes a quick and memorable impression on the child.

Capturing an easy behavior, like high five, wave, peek-a-boo or reaching for an object can also work for young or non-verbal children that can’t follow instructions.

With older verbal children or children that can sign and understand explanations you can explain that they will get a treat after each tag and that the tag means they got the tag point right. Tell them what the tag point is, tag and you’re off. Start with something they like to do or want to learn.

Save the more difficult stuff for later, once they understand the game and like to work with tagging.

Your homework is to pick one thing that is easy for your child, create a tag point, tag and treat 10 times in a row. That’s it.

If you can’t find any behavior, you can start with exhales. Every child can do that.