St Gabriel’s RC Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. All staff, governors and volunteers are expected to share this commitment. For more information please see our safeguarding policy which can be found under Key Information > Policies > Safeguarding Policy.
Understanding that ‘no’ plus an object is an early negative
Why is this important?
Children use negatives to describe the ‘absence’ or non-existence of
an object (e.g. a child finishes his/her drink and says ‘no juice’). Before
children learn to use ‘no’ in two-word phrases, they must first be able to
understand these structures and to use them appropriately.
What to do
• Gather together two favourite toys (e.g. cat, puppy, doll, Spiderman).
• Use just two toys to begin with.
• From a store of everyday objects, choose a few (e.g. ball, cup, hat, socks).
• Give an object to one of the toys (e.g. put the hat on the cat’s head).
• Ask ‘Who’s got no hat on?’
• Encourage the child to point to the toy without the object.
• If the child points to the toy wearing the hat, say ‘Teddy’s got a hat, who’s got no hat?’
• If this continues to prove difficult, prompt by guiding the child’s hand towards the right response and reinforce it with ‘Look, teddy’s got no hat on’.