A patient question can help a child explain an idea that first arrived as a gesture.

Young thinking often arrives in the body before it arrives in words: a shape made with the hands, a sound effect, a demonstration using whatever is on the table. If the response is to correct the form or move the conversation along, the idea disappears before it has been said. A patient question gives a child time to find language for something they already understand. The gesture is the draft.

When a child shows you something, try asking what happens next, or what it would do. Then wait. Repeat back the part you followed so they can correct you.