Lily Pad Trail — Tap Where I Tapped

A watch-then-copy game played on paper “lily pads” scattered on the floor or table. You tap a path across a few pads; your child keeps the path in mind and taps the same pads in the same order — a home version of the Corsi block-tapping task.

  1. Scatter nine lily pads — paper plates, sticky notes, or coasters — in a random arrangement, not in rows. Keep them all the same colour so position is the only clue.
  2. Introduce the frog (a soft toy, a beanbag, or just your finger). “Watch where the frog hops. Then it’s your turn to hop the same way.”
  3. Tap a path of two pads, about one hop per second, without naming or counting anything. Then hand over the frog.
  4. Your child copies the path in the same order. Cheer, then do another two-pad path in a different place.
  5. After two correct paths in a row, add a pad — three hops, then four.
  6. If a path goes wrong, don’t correct it mid-way. Say “Let’s watch the frog again,” and show a new path one hop shorter.
  7. Swap roles — your child hops a path for you to copy, and has to remember their own path to judge whether you got it right.

Variation: go large — cushions or chalk circles on the ground and your child jumps the path with their whole body. Play it by torchlight on a wall at bedtime. For a stretch, copy the path backwards, from the last pad to the first.

Requirements

  • Space: A tabletop for the small version; about 2 x 2 meters of clear floor for the jumping version
  • Surface: Table or floor; for jumping, use a non-slip surface or tape the pads down
  • Materials: Nine paper plates, sticky notes, coasters, or chalk circles of the same colour; a soft toy or beanbag "frog"
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings can take turns leading and copying
  • Supervision: Light at the table; moderate for the jumping version

Rationale & Objective

Working memory is not only verbal. Holding where and in what order draws on the visuospatial sketchpad, which develops along its own track and is measured separately from verbal span (Alloway, Gathercole & Pickering, 2006). The standard measure is Corsi’s (1972) block-tapping task — nine scattered blocks, an examiner taps a sequence, the child copies it — and Corsi span rises steadily through childhood, with five-year-olds typically reproducing sequences of about three, sometimes four, locations (Pickering, 2001). Visuospatial working memory in the preschool years is linked with early mathematics in particular: Bull, Espy and Wiebe (2008) found that it predicted maths achievement several years later. Keeping the pads identical and silent is deliberate — if the pads are coloured or you count aloud, children recode the path into words and the game stops exercising spatial memory. The game also suits children who find listening games hard, giving them a working-memory activity that does not depend on language. Honest framing — this mirrors a well-established measure; regular play should make children better at watching and reproducing spatial sequences, but broad transfer from such practice has not been shown (Melby-Lervåg & Hulme, 2013).

Progress Indicators

  • Early: copies a two-pad path; with three, taps the right pads in the wrong order or starts correctly and then wanders to nearby pads
  • Developing: copies three-pad paths most of the time when pads are well spaced; loses the middle of the path when pads are close together or the path crosses itself
  • Proficient: copies three-pad paths reliably and four-pad paths on some tries; watches the whole demonstration before moving; can lead a three-pad path and judge whether the copier was right
  • Advanced: copies four-pad paths consistently and attempts five; manages a short wait before copying; can reproduce a two- or three-pad path backwards

Safety Notes

  • Paper plates and sticky notes slide on smooth floors — for the jumping version tape them down, use chalk outdoors, or use non-slip mats
  • Jump barefoot or in shoes rather than socks, and space the pads so that no hop is a long stretch
  • Clear furniture edges from around the play area before any whole-body version
  • Keep sequences short enough for frequent success; visuospatial span varies widely at five and a run of failures quickly turns the game sour
  • If your child consistently struggles to copy even two positions, or seems to have trouble seeing or tracking the frog, mention it at your next pediatric or vision check

Hints

  • Playfulness: the frog can “ribbit” on each pad, fall asleep when the path is right, or splash into the pond when it is wrong; let your child choose the creature — rabbit burrows, bee flowers, rocket planets
  • Sustain interest: rearrange the pads every session so no layout is learned by heart, and keep a “longest trail ever” record on the fridge
  • Common mistake: laying the pads in a neat grid, using different colours, or saying “one, two, three” as you tap — each one lets the child use words instead of spatial memory. Scatter them, keep them plain, tap silently
  • Limited space: draw nine dots on a sheet of paper and tap with a finger, or tap a path on your child’s spread fingers and knuckles
  • Cross-domain: the jumping version adds gross-motor planning and balance; drawing the remembered path as a line afterwards adds pre-writing and early mapping; counting the hops afterwards adds numeracy
  • Progression: two pads → three pads well spaced → three pads close together → four pads → add a five-second wait before copying → paths that cross over themselves → copy the path backwards

Sources

  • Corsi, P. M. (1972). Human memory and the medial temporal region of the brain. Doctoral dissertation, McGill University (origin of the block-tapping task)
  • Pickering, S. J. (2001). “The development of visuo-spatial working memory.” Memory, 9(4–6), 423–432
  • Alloway, T. P., Gathercole, S. E. & Pickering, S. J. (2006). “Verbal and visuospatial short-term and working memory in children: Are they separable?” Child Development, 77(6), 1698–1716
  • Bull, R., Espy, K. A. & Wiebe, S. A. (2008). “Short-term memory, working memory, and executive functioning in preschoolers: Longitudinal predictors of mathematical achievement at age 7 years.” Developmental Neuropsychology, 33(3), 205–228
  • Melby-Lervåg, M. & Hulme, C. (2013). “Is working memory training effective? A meta-analytic review.” Developmental Psychology, 49(2), 270–291
  • Diamond, A. (2013). “Executive Functions.” Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168