The Missing-Clue Instructions Game

The adult gives instructions that are sometimes clear and sometimes missing a vital clue; the child’s job is to notice when they do not have enough information and to ask before acting.

Lay out 6–8 objects that differ in a couple of ways — for example a big red cup, a small red cup, a big blue cup, a small blue spoon, a red spoon, two different teddies.
Explain the game: “I’m going to ask you to do things. Sometimes I’ll forget an important clue. If you can’t tell exactly what I mean, hold up your hand and say ‘Wait — which one?’”
Start with a clear instruction: “Put the small blue spoon in the bowl.” The child does it.
Give a missing-clue instruction: “Put the cup on the chair.” (There are three cups.) Pause and wait. If the child grabs one, say warmly: “Hmm, how did you know which cup I meant?”
When the child asks, answer the question (“the big red one”) and celebrate the asking: “Good catch — I didn’t tell you enough.”
Swap roles. The child gives you instructions; you ask “Wait — which one?” whenever theirs are unclear, so they hear what a helpful question sounds like.

Variation: play it as a drawing game (“Draw a circle… now draw the line” — which line? where?), as a treasure hunt with a vague clue (“It’s under the thing in the kitchen”), or slip one impossible step into a simple recipe (“Now stir it with the… um…”) and see whether the child notices something is missing.

Requirements

Space: A table top or a small area of floor
Surface: Any
Materials: 6–8 household objects that share some features (cups, spoons, blocks, or toys in two sizes or colours); a bowl or box
Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; two children can play speaker and listener with an adult helping
Supervision: Moderate — the adult composes the instructions and decides how obvious the gaps are

Rationale & Objective

Knowing that you do not understand is a metacognitive skill in its own right, and it develops slowly. Markman (1977) gave young schoolchildren instructions with a glaring omission and found that the youngest often did not realise anything was missing until they tried to carry them out. Flavell et al. (1981) found the same pattern when kindergartners followed ambiguous building instructions — they often showed puzzlement yet still said the instructions were fine. Flavell (1979) made this kind of comprehension monitoring central to his original account of metacognition. The encouraging finding is that young listeners improve when they are given an explicit strategy — being told that asking questions is allowed and useful (Cosgrove & Patterson, 1977). This game supplies exactly that: a ready phrase, a safe setting, and an adult who is delighted to be asked. It lays groundwork for classroom listening and, later, for noticing when a sentence you have just read did not make sense.

Progress Indicators

Early: acts immediately on every instruction, picking any matching object; does not notice the gap even when asked “how did you know which one?”
Developing: hesitates, looks back and forth, or looks at the adult on unclear instructions; asks “Wait — which one?” when reminded of the phrase
Proficient: reliably asks a clarifying question on missing-clue instructions and acts straight away on clear ones; asks specific questions (“the big one or the small one?”)
Advanced: gives clear, complete instructions when playing speaker and repairs them when asked; uses clarifying questions in daily life (“which shoes — the boots or the trainers?”)

Safety Notes

Use unbreakable objects and keep the instructions to safe actions — no climbing or carrying anything hot, heavy, or sharp
The tone must be playful. The child should feel the instruction was faulty, never that they were tricked or tested
Keep at least half the instructions clear so the child does not learn to question everything or to distrust what adults say
Children who are learning the language of the game may miss gaps for vocabulary reasons — play in the child’s strongest language
If your child often seems not to hear or follow ordinary clear instructions, ask for a hearing check and talk to a speech-language therapist rather than assuming inattention

Hints

Playfulness: pretend to be a forgetful robot or a pirate captain whose orders keep “losing a bit.” Let the child press an imaginary buzzer when a clue is missing
Sustain interest: move the game around the house — laying the table, sorting laundry, tidying toys (“Put the car in the box” when there are three boxes). Two or three rounds folded into a real chore is enough
Common mistake: answering the unasked question — adding “the red one!” the moment the child hesitates. Wait through the pause; the hesitation is the child noticing
Limited space: play with no objects as a movement game — “Touch your… " (pause), “Take three steps towards the… " — or with five crayons on a lap tray
Cross-domain: size, colour, and position words (vocabulary and early maths); giving clear instructions as speaker (expressive language and perspective-taking); listening before acting (inhibitory control)
Progression: gaps with obvious duplicates in view → subtler gaps (two similar teddies) → two-step instructions with one unclear step → child as speaker → an impossible or contradictory instruction (“put the big cup inside the small cup”) → noticing a nonsense sentence in a familiar story

Sources

Markman, E. M. (1977). “Realizing That You Don’t Understand: A Preliminary Investigation.” Child Development, 48(3), 986–992
Flavell, J. H., Speer, J. R., Green, F. L. & August, D. L. (1981). “The Development of Comprehension Monitoring and Knowledge about Communication.” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 46(5)
Flavell, J. H. (1979). “Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive–developmental inquiry.” American Psychologist, 34(10), 906–911
Cosgrove, J. M. & Patterson, C. J. (1977). “Plans and the development of listener skills.” Developmental Psychology, 13(6), 557–564
Head Start ELOF — Language and Communication (Attending and Understanding) and Approaches to Learning (Cognitive Self-Regulation)