For starters, it is one of the logical skills, and it is crucial for natural communication, everyday interaction, and basic conversation. In addition, it is also an essential element of executive function development. Unfortunately, according to research, most children with neurodevelopmental disorders lack executive function skills. Executive function skill is a set of mental abilities that help one to get tasks done aptly. The frontal lobe controls these skills.

Executive function skills are essential for planning, organizing, remembering details, gathering and structuring information, reviewing/evaluating things in the surrounding, and more. Unfortunately, many ADHD and ASD symptoms show a lack of executive function skills.

How To Introduce ‘What’s Wrong?’

Before you move to teach ‘what’s wrong’, you should teach the concept of ‘wrong’. The first step is to introduce a picture or an object they are very familiar with, like an apple. Then, ask the child to color the apple and give him a blue or black crayon. The child would either say ‘red’ or would be confused. Then, say, ‘Blue is wrong.’
If the child accepts the blue or black crayon and starts coloring, stop the child immediately and say, ‘Blue is wrong. Apple is red.’ Now, give them two cards; one with a red apple and another with a blue apple. Now, ask the child which one is wrong. The child would repeat, ‘Blue is wrong’. Likewise, teach as many cards as possible. Starting with the wrong color or shape is best before moving on to other logic.

Step 1: Finding The Wrong One

Give two cards with something explicitly wrong in one of the cards. Everything else in those cards should be the same. For instance, show a cup of coffee with a spoon and another with a pencil. Now, ask the child to identify the wrong one.

It would require prompts and explanations initially, and make sure to fade away the prompts as fast as possible. If the child has difficulty identifying or understanding the ‘wrong’ concept, always go with pictures the child is very familiar with, like brushing with a carrot and brushing with a toothbrush.

Step 2: Why Is It Wrong?

Now if the child is well-versed in identifying the wrong picture, go for an explanation. Do not expect the child to respond or reply for the first few days. Whenever the child identifies a picture as ‘wrong’, say ‘because we brush with a toothbrush’. Always start the reasoning with ‘because’.

Show the picture to the child; the child will identify the wrong one and ask ‘why’ – just a one-word question. The child should start the answer with because.

Step 3: Increase The Complexity

Up until these steps, the difference should be obvious and distinct. Now, slowly make it quite tricky. You can either make the reasoning difficult or make it hard to find which one is wrong. For instance, a dog eating a bone and a dog eating a pillow. The child should interpret that the dog eats bone and then identify the dog eating the pillow as wrong. This is an example of a simple card. Now, show a bowl of bones in front of a kennel and a bowl of glass bottles in front of a kennel. The child should identify that the kennel is where the dog lives and then infer that the dog does not eat bottles to determine ‘what’s wrong’.

Step 4: No Comparison

Now, remove the correct card and let the child identify what’s wrong and explain it in a statement.