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What Doesn’t Belong? Game Teaches Similarities and Differences

Last Updated: September 14, 2009

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Parenting Tips for Your 31-32 Month Old Toddler

  • Draw four or five pictures or cut out four or five shapes that are all alike except one. Start with pictures or shapes obviously different, such as four pictures of trees and one picture of a house or four red triangles and one white circle.
  • Later you can make the “different” pictures more like the others. For example, four dogs and a cat or four small red triangles and one large red triangle.
  • Ask your child to show you the one that is different from the others. Take turns. You can also play this with actual objects found around the house and in the yard, such as four spoons and a fork or four red flowers and a white one. Your child is learning the word “different” and what it means.


Learn more about Your Toddler: 31-32 Months from Just In Time Parenting. You can also go to our Resource Links for additional information on child care and development.


Note to Parents: When reading this newsletter, remember: Every baby is different. Children may do things earlier or later than described here. This newsletter gives equal space and time to both sexes. If he or she is used, we are talking about all babies.
References: These materials were adapted by authors from Extension Just in Time Parenting Newsletters in California, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.

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