Herb Basket Point and Pause

The basket comes out. The adult waits. The child points.

This is a communication activity disguised as a plant activity. For pre verbal children, pointing at a preferred herb is a genuine request made about the natural world, and it is often the first one they make.

The adult's job is entirely to wait. We time it in training, because most adults last under three seconds before offering something. Eight seconds is where the child usually acts.

The sheet has the setup, the waiting protocol, and a recording strip for tracking which child pointed and at what. That record turns out to be useful evidence of engagement when a parent asks what their toddler is doing all morning in a garden.