Understanding the negative form

Why is this important?
Children begin to understand negatives with ‘no’ and ‘not’ and then
progress to understanding the reduced form (e.g. ‘isn’t’, ‘can’t’ and ‘don’t’).

What to do

• Gather together some pictures of children doing various actions (e.g. climbing, running, jumping, eating).
• Put out two pictures and ask:

‘Who isn’t eating?’

• When the child points to the right picture, reinforce this by repeating the sentence:

‘Well done. He isn’t eating. He’s climbing.’

• Have another go with two new pictures.