Robot Walk (Listening/ Reading)

​My daughter, like many children, loves robots. She loves pretending to be a robot even more!

Norah in a robot costume made out of cardboard!

In this activity, children are blindfolded and have to pretend to be robots that can only listen to voice commands. 
 
The robot costume is obviously optional for this activity itself but making a simple costume like the one shown above will really immerse the child into the activity. And as a bonus, making the robot costume out of recycled boxes is a fun activity in its own right!

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​Objective(s) of activity:
This activity practices the listening ability of your child. This activity is also perfect to get your child used to context specific words (eg. my right, your left, two steps behind from where you are etc).
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While primarily a listening activity, if you have more than one child taking part in the activity, writing down the instructions and getting a child to read out the instructions also practices the child’s reading ability.
 

Targeted age group:
The activity as described is perfect for 5 – 8 year old children but see directions below for scaling up the difficulty for older children up to 12.
 

Number of participants:
Minimum 1 adult to give instructions and 1 child to take part in the activity.
 

Specific directions and notes:
1) First, you need to decide on an objective for the ‘robot’ to reach. Norah has a favorite stuffed giraffe animal. Your child may have something similar.

2) Choose a starting point where the ‘robot’ will stand and be blindfolded. Sleeping masks that airlines hand out are perfect.

3) Hide the object in a specific place in the house, not too near the starting point. Make sure the ‘robot’ cannot see where it is hidden.

4)  Give directions to the robot in a step-wise manner. Some examples of directions that you can give are below:

            a)         “Take two steps forward”
            b)         “Turn to your right slowly until I say stop”
            c)         “Take three big steps backwards”

Important note: Since your child is blindfolded and the house is full of hazards, please be careful. You can hold your child’s hands during the activity to make sure s/he does not bump into any edges or objects.

5) The round ends when the ‘robot’ reaches the objective. You can switch who the robot is or play another round.  


Notes for scaling up difficulty:
This activity is quite easy to scale up in difficulty. For older children, you can do the following:

1) Use degrees (eg. 90 degrees, 270 degrees) and clock-specific terms (eg. clockwise, anti-clockwise)

            a) “Turn 90 degrees to your right”
            b) “Turn clockwise 45 degrees”
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2) Provide more than one step in the direction.
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            a) “Take two steps forward and turn 90 degrees anti-clockwise.”

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Non-exhaustive list of possible voice commands:

a)         “Take n steps forward.”
b)         “Take n steps backward.”

These can be modified with size of steps for more variety as shown in (c).

c)         “Take 3 {small/ medium/ big} steps forward”
d)         “Turn around slowly until I say stop.”
e)         “Turn n degrees clockwise/ anti-clockwise”
f)          “Turn n degrees right/ left”
 
You can add a three-dimensional angle to your directions by placing small stools or chairs in the way. This is more suitable for older children. You can then provide the types of commands shown in (g) and (h).

g)         “Take one step onto/ off the stool”
h)        “Walk around the stool that is in front of you”
 
For variety, you can hide the object on a shelf (or in a cupboard). This means that you can give commands like (i).

i)         “Raise your right hand and obtain the object from the shelf”

Finally, you can bring in a treasure hunt vibe to this activity by placing subsequent voice commands in a different location to be reached.

(j) shows what such an instruction might look like.

j)          “Take three big steps and one small step forward. Turn 90 degrees clockwise. Find the next set
              of instructions on the table.”
 
As far as these voice commands go, you are only restricted by your imagination. Just be sure to have fun and, just as importantly, be safe.
 
Be sure to let me know what interesting voice commands you have come up with in the comments.