What Is Missing? Circle the Empty Place

Nothing is swapped, moved or resized on this page: things simply disappear. An owl sits under the moon with stars, planets and mushrooms in picture 1, and in picture 2 three of those things are gone, leaving empty places in the night sky and on the ground. The child circles the three empty places and ticks three boxes. Only removal is used on this kindergarten version, so the question stays one question: what was there, and is it still there?

Noticing absence is harder than noticing a change, because there is nothing to look at where the thing used to be. The child has to remember the top picture while scanning the bottom one, which is the memory part of visual comparison. Three items keep it within reach of a five-year-old, and the circle drawn around empty paper is a satisfying answer to write.

The answer key rings the three empty places with numbers; the tap screen asks the child to tap each empty place in the lower picture. The base page of the find-the-differences family mixes all the kinds of change, which is the step after this one. These pages compare two pictures of one scene; mirror drawing, colouring by number and odd-one-out puzzles have their own pages.