We have questions today, and one of the first questions was on how to get started. We have some videos to show you to help you get started. We’re going to start with the Amanda video, so let’s take a look at that.

Martha: We did see this video earlier. In the earlier webinar when we looked at the video and first saw Amanda, she wasn’t walking in a straight line, she tended to wander around; she didn’t walk towards her destination. This video shows her first time being tagged. Just by getting that tag with every footstep, suddenly she is walking in a straight line, with focus, to a destination. So that tagging of each step was an easy way to get started with her. The tag point was “Takes a step” or “Foot Hits Ground.” So a simple action is a great way to get started. Just get going with a tag point with the movement that you would like the child to do more often. Does anybody have any questions or comments on that?

Joan Orr: I just wanted to point out and make sure that everyone realizes that, in that video, there is no explanation to her (Amanda). She’s never seen a tagger before, she’s never been tagged, or had anything explained to her. The therapist just started tagging. Sometimes with children who are nonverbal you can just start like that and they understand what the tag means. They get the control of being able to make you tag again, and again.

Theresa McKeon:  Possibly another way to get started, especially if they are nonverbal, is to have the learner watch two other people — who are verbal — tag each other, and do a tag session. And it has nothing to do with them. We did this once with a young boy who was 28 months old. He was watching the mom and the sister play the tag game. So that might be it too, where you don’t directly go to the student first off. Targeting something is always a good way to start. All they do is touch something and get a treat, and that starts to give them the idea.

Martha: Right, right. Those are great suggestions, and we talk about some of those things. We’ll bring up those points later on in the webinar, especially the modeling, or what Theresa refers to as “watching” a tag session. We’ll get into that in several points.