How to teach gestures to a child?

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Actually, I’m not a parent, but I’m asking this question on behalf of my friend who doesn’t speak English. She has a 4.2 years old daughter, officially diagnosed with ASD. The girl is verbal, but she never uses gestures (nodding, pointing at objects etc.). When her mother tries to teach it to her, she doesn’t react and doesn’t seem to understand what is required of her. When gestures are combined with words she understands the verbal part, but doesn’t repeat the gesture itself. Or even if she repeats it once, she never uses it again in a similar situation.

If someone has experienced this, what were the methods you used to teach gestures to an autistic child?

I would be very grateful for any recommendations or even articles on the subject.

We had/have a heck of a time with gestures. I think it is one of the hardest things for my son. It has been a lot of repetition, and even though we got to the point where he is much better, it was hard. Some of it is because my son has a form of apraxia where he can't imitate physical movements well, though at 8, it is much improved than it was at 4. he did a lot of flailing about at that age.

We also have helped him (when willing) by guiding his arms and hands in the right positions to create a muscle memory. We took books out of the library with kids hand and finger games, and he was somewhat willing to try those. At 4, though, we were not having a whole lot of success. He was not eligible for OT at school at that point, but your friend's child might be, or maybe they could afford it privately. We had already made some headway by the time we were eligible for it, so some of it may be developmental awareness/readiness.

Repetition and good prompting / modeling. The nice thing about gestures is you can pull off a full physical prompt if necessary. What I mean is, when you wave bye, you can actually take their hand, hold it up and cause it to wave (gently, not harshly). You can then encourage them by saying what a great job they're doing.

You could probably have fun with an exercise where they're eating those peanut butter crackers, and so can't talk. And you can keep asking if they want another one, with their mouth full. Then you can model nodding yes, and when they nod, you can say "good you said yes, here's another cracker."

Obviously adjust to the child's intellectual level, you don't need to do anything that's too babyish for them, but that general concept works well.

edit: just read ASD Mommy's whole post...looks like we're saying the same thing again!

beyond being able to point,is there any actual need for her to be able to gester if she finds it to difficult to learn?
am just wondering,as am thirty and still dont understand the concept of gesters whether doing or recognising them, to self it looks like someone doing a gibberish form of sign language and am mesmerised by their hand swinging/movement so cannot process anything they say whilst they do this.

am always making fun of the ID & autism specialist of mine everytime he visits as he does this constantly flailing his arms about-and he is on the spectrum albeit not diagnosed!

My son just started nodding and shaking his head, pointing and waving (a bit weirdly and often in the wrong direction lol) consistently in the past year or so, he's 3.5.
We did A LOT of toddler type games and songs in which gestures and body movements are incorporated last year and it really stuck with him. We haven't done them in so long... I'm trying to remember what the best ones were. Hmm. Drawing a blank. Sorry. If I remember I'll get back to you!

I could be very wrong, but I am with KingdomOfRats on this one, though I never did what you are doing and emphasize gestures at preschool age. My son is 12 and when I point to something along with verbal cues, he can't follow it anyway. He gets the direction, but goes either too far or too short, even though I give verbal instruction along with it. So, I just don't think ASD people find gestures useful and can live without them.

I agree with aann songs worked really well for my little guy who is 4. He just started pointing and using other gestures and we had to make up songs or co op songs and put in the gestures. He is now pointing and waving hi and bye on his own. The ABA supervisor said there are some studies about music and language. Even before we knew he was HFA and just knew he was smart and quirky we used songs to get him to speak and transition.

At pre-K, and Kinder age, for good or for ill, they do a lot of songs with gestures. So, if ones child is enrolled in such a program, and he can't mimic gestures. it is a problem b/c he stands out. It is not exactly self-esteem boosting stuff even if kids are not mean about it. They know they can't follow along.

Also, out in the NT world, understanding body language is important receptively because people use it, and being able to imitate handshakes and fist-bumps or whatever the kids are doing is part of the language. I don't think it ought to be important, but it is.

I am terrible at it myself, so I am not a great teacher with the subtle social ones. I taught "thumbs up and down", "high-five" and the "high-five ---down-low" one and I don't even know if anyone does that anymore. (Well, I have seen adults initiate it, so that is why I taught it. I don't think kids do it these days or think it is cool.

I do agree that the gestures that go with songs is a good idea. Even though my son had a lot of difficulty with them, he did enjoy them and want to follow along.

Thanks A LOT, guys! Your replies are really helpful, and they helped to ease her worries a bit, now that we know what else we can try.

I agree with recommendations for hand-over-hand and physical manipulation. It is how my daughter learned to point. And my son, like ASDMommy's son, required the establishment of muscle memory. He could not look at you and copy what you were doing, but if you showed him, by physically moving his body, then he understood. This was even true for taekwondo, which entailed some pretty complex movements.