Sitting down Simon Says (Listening/ Speaking)

‘Simon Says’ is a well-known game. However, this activity has lots of untapped potential to improve your child’s listening and memory skills.

In this variation, your child will be asked to answer various questions that are asked by Simon Says. There is very little physical movement as in the original game. Because of this, you will not need much space to do this activity.
 

Objective(s) of activity:
Your child has to carry out a verbal action correctly with respect to a verbal instruction.
 

Targeted age group:
6 to 8 year old children are best suited for this activity. 5 year olds will need much simpler instructions. Children older than 8 can take part in this activity but may feel it is too simple.  

Only 1 child can respond at a time as otherwise it is difficult to hear the responses. If you have more than one child, you can get one of them to say the commands, but make sure the commands that the child gives are not too difficult for the other to carry out.


Directions:
The activity proceeds in the same way as regular ‘Simon Says’ except the commands require the child to respond verbally.

Eg.
Parent: Simon says “Say your name”.
Child: Norah
​
Parent: Simon says “Say your age”.
Child: Six
 
The usual rules apply. If the child responds when you did not say ‘Simon Says’, then the round is over. You can optionally keep a tally of points for each correct response. If there is more than one child, then the next child will begin the game or a new round starts. 

You may also choose to say your commands as a question.

Eg.
Parent: Simon says “What’s your favorite color?”.
Child: Blue
 
In order to bring in a memory challenging aspect to the task, you can ask two or more questions in a row and the child has to answer in the right sequence.

Eg.
Parent: Simon says “What’s your favorite color and what’s your name?”.
Child: Blue and Norah.
 
This activity requires your child to listen carefully to Simon in order to carry out the instructions correctly. You can bring in a speaking element to this activity by requiring your child to answer in full statements.

Eg.
Parent: Simon says “What’s your favorite color?”.
Child: My favorite color is blue.
 
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Notes for scaling up difficulty:
One way to scale up the difficulty is to string together more instructions as your child gets better at the game. You can also incorporate physical actions which do not require much space together with the verbal instruction.

Eg.
Parent: Simon says “Touch your nose and what’s your favorite color?”.
Child: My favorite color is blue. (while touching nose)
 
You can also introduce a temporal aspect to the actions and words by requiring the responses to be sequential.
 
Eg.
Parent: Simon says “First touch your nose, then wiggle your ears and then say what’s your favorite color?”.
Child: <Touches nose>, <wiggles ears>, My favorite color is blue.
 
 
Non-exhaustive list of possible verbal instructions:
The simplest commands are those asking for details about the child.
     a.    Simon says:             What’s your name?                                               
                                               What’s your age?
                                               What’s your {mother/ father/ sibling}’s name?
                                               What’s your {mother/ father/ sibling}’s age?
                                               What’s your favorite {color/ number/ letter/ food}?
                                               What’s your least favorite {color/ number/ letter/ food}?
 
You can give commands that are also mini-quizzes, eg. maths equations or science questions.
       b.   Simon says:              What’s 2 + 3?
                                                  What’s 6 - 2?
                                                  Name 2 planets.           
 
As mentioned above, physical actions which do not require much space are also good commands for this activity.
        c.   Simon says:              Touch your {nose/ ears/ knees/ head}
                                                   Wiggle your {nose/ ears/ shoulders}
                                                   Clap your hands
                                                   Snap your fingers
 
Finally, you should definitely try sequential commands. How about something like this?
        d.    Simon says:              What’s your name and Snap your fingers and What’s 6 -2?
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What devilish commands did you come up with? Share in the comments.