Mouse, Talker, Lion — The Voice Volume Map

A sorting-and-acting game in which the child learns three named voice sizes and decides which one fits which place.

  1. Draw (or let the child draw) three simple pictures on separate pieces of paper: a mouse (whisper), a talker — two faces chatting (indoor voice) — and a lion (big outdoor voice).
  2. Practise each voice with the same sentence, e.g. “I found my shoe.” Say it as a mouse, a talker, and a lion. Laugh about how different it sounds.
  3. Lay the three pictures on the floor. Call out a place or situation: “library,” “playground,” “baby sleeping,” “dinner table,” “calling the dog across the park,” “doctor’s waiting room,” “cheering at a football match.”
  4. The child jumps to the picture that fits and says a sentence in that voice.
  5. Ask “Why that one?” — the reasoning (“because people are reading”) is the real learning.
  6. Finish with a quick-change round: you point to the pictures in random order and the child switches voices on the spot.

Variation: take the map out for real. Before you walk into a shop, a library, or Grandma’s flat, ask “Which voice lives here?” and let the child choose and tell you.

Requirements

  • Space: A small patch of floor; the practice round can be done at a table
  • Surface: Any floor that is not slippery if the child jumps between pictures
  • Materials: Three sheets of paper and crayons
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings can take turns calling out places
  • Supervision: Light — the adult plays along as caller

Rationale & Objective

“Use your inside voice” is an abstract instruction. Young children control loudness far better when the levels are named, pictured, and physically practised, which is the principle behind visual scales used by teachers, speech-language pathologists, and occupational therapists (e.g. Buron & Curtis’s Incredible 5-Point Scale). The game separates two skills that are often lumped together: producing a quiet, middle, and loud voice on purpose, and choosing the right one for the setting — the second is the pragmatic skill this subdomain measures (“adjusts voice volume for setting, observed in 2+ different environments”). ASHA’s earlier milestone chart for 4- to 5-year-olds described a child who “talks in different ways, depending on the listener and place,” including talking louder outside than inside. Switching voices quickly on a signal also exercises inhibitory control, in the same way as the stop-and-go circle-time games used in preschool self-regulation research.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: produces a whisper and a shout but the middle voice drifts loud; matches only the obvious places (library, playground); volume creeps up within seconds
  • Developing: produces three distinct voices; sorts most familiar places correctly with a reason; in real settings adjusts when asked “Which voice lives here?”
  • Proficient: adjusts without a reminder on entering a familiar quiet or noisy place and holds the level for several minutes; self-corrects after a slip
  • Advanced: adjusts to changing conditions in the same place (baby falls asleep, someone takes a phone call); notices what others around are doing and matches them; gently reminds a sibling using the animal names

Safety Notes

  • Keep lion-voice turns short and never ask for screaming — brief loud talking is fine, repeated yelling strains young vocal cords
  • Sustained forced whispering is also tiring for the voice; a “mouse voice” should be soft, not strained
  • A child who consistently speaks very loudly, asks for repetition, or seems not to notice their own volume should have a hearing check before this is treated as a behaviour issue
  • A persistently hoarse or husky voice is worth mentioning to the pediatrician
  • Some children with sensory sensitivities find the loud rounds distressing — let them cover their ears or skip lion turns

Hints

  • Playfulness: let the child give you the places and catch you getting it wrong (a lion voice in the library) — correcting an adult is irresistible
  • Sustain interest: add new voices over time (a “robot” flat voice, a “storyteller” voice for reading aloud) and new places from the child’s own week
  • Common mistake: using the map only to quieten the child. Play plenty of lion rounds and name the places where being loud is right — the lesson is matching, not silence
  • Limited space: skip the jumping and hold up one, two, or three fingers for the voice level; works in a car seat or a queue
  • Cross-domain: reading a picture book with different voice sizes for different characters adds expressive reading; the quick-change round is an inhibitory-control workout
  • Progression: two voices (mouse and lion) → three voices → sorting places with reasons → choosing the voice in a real place when asked → adjusting with no reminder → adjusting when the situation changes

Sources

  • ASHA, How Does Your Child Hear and Talk? Four to Five Years (earlier milestone chart, since revised) — “Talks in different ways, depending on the listener and place”
  • Head Start ELOF, Language & Communication, Goal P-LC 4 — appropriate social and conversational rules
  • Buron, K.D. & Curtis, M. (2003), The Incredible 5-Point Scale — visual scales for teaching voice volume and other social behaviours
  • Teaching Strategies GOLD Objective 10b — “Uses social rules of language”
  • Tominey, S.L. & McClelland, M.M. (2011), “Red Light, Purple Light,” Early Education and Development 22(3) — circle-time games trialled to improve behavioural self-regulation; gains were found for children who started with low self-regulation
  • Gilliam, J.E. & Miller, L. (2006), Pragmatic Language Skills Inventory (PLSI), PRO-ED