6.3

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’).

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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.