Come to think of it, telling a child “don’t”—don’t throw, don’t grab, don’t climb, don’t scream—contains very little information. Rosy already knows she’s throwing, grabbing, climbing, or screaming. But she doesn’t know (or realize) the consequences of these actions. And she might not realize, in the moment, why she shouldn’t do these things. When you tell a child “don’t” and “stop,” you assume they’ll obey the command as an automaton would: without a thought of their own.
I honestly tried this with my daughter yesterday and it worked! Instead of saying, “Don’t climb the bookshelf,” I said, “If you climb that, it will break the shelves.” She got down. I was flabbergasted and delighted!
