Simon Says
Many young children with visual impairments enjoy engaging with their parents in fun games. Playing a fun game of Simon Says can help to reinforce directional concepts in relation to the child’s body and develop active listening skills.
Purpose
To create opportunities for a child to learn about purposeful movement and directions in relation to their body parts.
Ideas for infants, toddlers and preschoolers
For infants: prompt “Simon says” for each of the movements (help the child wiggle his toes if that is what "Simon Says") and move and touch the child’s body parts in a playful manner.
For toddlers and preschoolers: ask child to point to different parts of their bodies and reference body planes (front, back, side, top). Develop the concepts of left and right by singing Hokey Pokey. For this song and the ‘Simon Says’ game, be sure to play along with your child and everyone should be facing the same way so that you are able to model for your child which is your left and right side.
For toddlers and preschoolers: for the first couple of prompts, be sure to say, "Simon Says" and play along enthusiastically with your child. As the game progresses, you can check for active listening by dropping the Simon Says prompt on occasion and child needing to freeze if "Simon" does not call out the action.
For preschoolers: let them have opportunities to call out the prompts.
For a child with multiple exceptionalities: prompt only the body part, motor movements or sounds that are within the ability of the child, (e.g. Lift your leg, blink 3 times, growl like a dog…). When it is the child's turn to be Simon- prompts can be recorded or images placed on the child's communication board, switch or iPad.
Take it up a notch - get your child to help you in making simple tactile or Clip Art cards that depict an action and/or body part. A card can be pulled along with a second card that has tactile or large print numbers to reference how many times to repeat the action or touch the body part.
Simon Says prompt ideas
Jump 2 hops left
Lift your right leg
Walk 3 giant steps back
Turn in a circle
Raise your right arm
Touch your right elbow
Pat your right foot
Hop on your left foot
Use your left hand to wave
Touch your right ear
Crawl to the left
Stand on your left foot
Bounce like a bunny 3 times
Pinch your left big toe
Waddle like a penguin 5 steps back
Pat your left cheek
Lift your right knee
Hoot like an owl 3 times
Scratch your left eyebrow.
Take 3 baby steps to the left.
Frog leap 2 steps to the right
Pat your right shoulder
Tap your left foot 5 times
Make a fist with your right hand
Turn your head to the right
Take 3 baby steps back
Hop on your right foot
Raise your left arm.
Touch your right ear
Credit: Blind Beginnings, PRCVI, BC Blind Sports, Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada
Photo Credit: Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash