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Mistakes

I built it a different way

What happened

A model beside its instruction sheet, built a different way

You built your model. It doesn't look like the picture on the instructions.

What do you want to happen?

For the grown-up

Nothing has gone wrong here, though it may not feel that way to her. The instructions are one way of doing it and her is another. She is the one who gets to choose which of the two she keeps.

  • Say what they wanted before you say what can happen. A child who is handed a solution first hears it as being told off.
  • The true thing beats the soothing thing. “The cup is in the wash” is something a child can be disappointed about and then get past.
  • Wanting the impossible thing is not a mistake. It is what they want, and this resource agrees with them before it says anything else.
  • It works far better on a calm day than in the middle of one. Going through it when nothing is happening is what makes the words available the next time something is.

This is a rehearsal tool, not an assessment, and it does not know your child. You decide whether what it says fits them — if a scenario is not right, close it and pick another.

All 33 situations