Calling All Rooms — The House Walkie-Talkie Game

A whole-house game in which the child, busy in one room, listens for their name called from another room and answers before carrying out a short message.

  1. Agree on the radio rules: when the child hears their name, they call back “Roger!” (or “I hear you!”) straight away, then listen for the message.
  2. Settle the child in one room with something lightly absorbing — drawing, building blocks — and go to the room next door, leaving the doors open.
  3. Call their name once, in a normal-to-raised speaking voice (not a shout). Wait for “Roger!” Then give a short message: “Bring me a blue block, over.” The child delivers it.
  4. Send them back and move one room farther away, or half-close a door. Repeat 5–6 times, sometimes waiting a minute or two between calls so that the name comes as a surprise.
  5. If the child does not answer, do not call louder and louder — walk closer, call once more at the same volume, and note how far away worked. Then swap so the child calls you.

Variation: play Whose Name? — call out a string of names (“Teddy… Grandma… Mia… Sam!”) and the child answers only to their own.

Requirements

  • Space: Two or more rooms of a home, or a garden and the house
  • Surface: Any; clear the route between rooms of trip hazards
  • Materials: None; a quiet activity for the child to be busy with
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings can each listen for their own name
  • Supervision: Light — the adult is out of sight but within earshot throughout

Rationale & Objective

Answering to your name from another room looks simple but asks a lot of the auditory system: the voice arrives quieter, muffled by walls and doors, and without any visual cues, while the child’s attention is on something else. ASHA’s technical report lists listening to degraded signals among the central auditory processes; the task also calls on the selective attention needed to notice a faint but important sound. A child’s own name is the easiest target to practice with, because it is the most familiar sound pattern they know — and noticing it is exactly what teachers rely on to get a child’s attention across a busy room. The “Roger!” reply matters as much as the listening: it builds the habit of acknowledging a speaker, which Head Start’s framework describes as part of attending to communication, and it lets you tell the difference between a child who did not hear and one who heard and carried on playing. Inconsistent response to a name called from a distance is also one of the everyday signs that prompts a hearing check, so the game doubles as a gentle way to observe.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: answers when called from the doorway or when not busy; misses the name when absorbed in play; needs the message repeated face to face
  • Developing: answers “Roger!” from the next room most times; catches the name but only part of the message; slower to respond when deeply engaged
  • Proficient: answers on the first call from two rooms away while busy, and carries out a one-step message correctly without coming to ask
  • Advanced: answers through a half-closed door or with the TV on quietly; carries out a two-step message; calls back “say that again, please” when they did not catch it

Safety Notes

  • Stay within earshot and keep the game inside the home or an enclosed garden — the child should never be sent somewhere you cannot quickly reach
  • Ask for walking, not running, between rooms, and keep stairs out of the game unless your child manages them confidently
  • Do not send the child to fetch anything from the kitchen counter, bathroom cabinet, or anywhere hazardous
  • Not answering while absorbed in play is normal at 5 and is not defiance or deafness; avoid turning the game into a test of obedience
  • If your child often fails to respond to their name from a short distance, needs the TV louder than others do, or responds better on some days than others, arrange a hearing test — mild and fluctuating hearing loss (for example from glue ear) is common at this age

Hints

  • Playfulness: use walkie-talkie talk — “Base to Captain Sam, do you copy?” — and cardboard-tube “radios”. End every message with “over” and let the child do the same
  • Sustain interest: weave it into the real day — call them to dinner with a secret-agent message, or make the message a clue in a treasure hunt
  • Common mistake: shouting louder each time. That teaches the child that the first call does not count. Call once, then move closer
  • Limited space: in a one-room home, call from behind the child, from behind a door, or in a whisper from the far corner while they play
  • Cross-domain: practice polite responding and asking for clarification (social communication); give messages with numbers and colors (“three red blocks”); let the child deliver a message to another family member (memory)
  • Progression: same room, behind the child → next room, door open → two rooms away → door half closed → quiet background noise → two-step message → name hidden in a list of names

Sources

  • ASHA (2005), (Central) Auditory Processing Disorders — Technical Report: auditory performance with degraded acoustic signals
  • ASHA — Communication Milestones, 4 to 5 Years (includes following simple directions)
  • Head Start ELOF — Language and Communication, Goal P-LC 1 (attends to communication and language from others)
  • Ayres, A.J. (2005), Sensory Integration and the Child (25th anniversary ed.) — registration of and orientation to sound
  • Dunn, W. (2014), Sensory Profile 2 — Auditory Processing section